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A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 


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, 


"  You  have  saved  the  Railroad."      Page  336. 

A  Captain  in  the  Ranks. " 


H  Captain 
In  tbc  Ranke 

A  Romance  of  Affairs 


By  GEORGE  CARY  EGGLESTON 

Author  of  "DOROTHY  SOUTH,"  "RUNNING 

THE  RIVER,"  "THE  MASTER  OF 

WARLOCK,"  Etc. 


A.  L.  BURT  COMPANY,     #    &    #    * 
,#     &    #     PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1904, 
'        BY 

A.  S.  Barnes  &  Co. 


.  •  • 


,    •'  i 


TO 

&nblt 

On  her  wedding  day,  I  dedicate 
this  story  with  affection 

September  8,  1904 


PREFACE 

This  story  is  intended  to  supplement  the  trilogy  of 
romances  in  which  I  have  endeavored  to  show  forth  the 
Virginian  character  under  varying  conditions. 

"  Dorothy  South  "  dealt  with  Virginia  life  and  char- 
acter before  the  Confederate  war. 

"The  Master  of  Warlock"  had  to  do  with  the 
Virginians  during  the  early  years  of  the  war,  when 
their  struggle  seemed  hopeful  of  success. 

"Evelyn  Byrd  "  was  a  study  of  the  same  people  as 
they  confronted  certain  disaster  and  defeat. 

The  present  story  is  meant  to  complete  the  picture. 
It  deals  with  that  wonderful  upbuilding  of  the  great 
West  which  immediately  followed  the  war,  and  in 
which  the  best  of  the  young  Virginians  played  an 
important  part. 

The  personages  of  the  story  are  real,  and  its  events 
are  mainly  facts,  thinly  veiled. 


vii 


CONTENTS 


PAGB 
CHAPTER  j 

I  The  Final  Fight 

II  Alone  in  the  High  Mountain 18 

III  The  New  Birth  of  Manhood 29 

IV  A  Private  in  the  Army  of  Work 38 

V  The  Beginning  of  a  Career 

VI  A  Captain  in  the  Army  of  Work *8 

VII  The  "Sizing  Up"  of  Guilford  Duncan  .     .     .  59 

~  .     •     .       64 

VIII  On  Duty 

IX  One  Night's  Work 

X  Alliance  Offensive  and  Defensive      ....      87 

XI  The  Ways  of  Guilford  Duncan 10° 

XII  Barbara  Verne 

11 Q 

XIII  A  Battle  and  an  Acquaintance 

XIV  A  Social  Advance 

XV  The  Coming  Out  of  Barbara 

XVI  A  New  Enemy 

~  n  ...        160 

XVII  An  Old  Friend 

XVIII  Dick  Temple's  Plans 

XIX  Dick  Temple's  Story 

XX  In  the  Summer  Time 

XXI  An  Interview  with  Napper  Tandy       .... 

XXII  Under  the  Honeysuckles        

XXIII  Captain  Will  Hallam  in  the  Gams    .     .    .    -    909 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  pAGB 

XXIV  Barbara's  Answer      . 214 

XXV  Temple  and  Tandy 224 

XXVI  A  Pact  with  Barbara 242 

XXVII  Mrs.  Hallam  Hears  News 254 

XXVIII  The  Birth  of  a  Great  Railroad 265 

XXIX  A  Scrap  of  Paper #  274 

XXX  The  Mystery  of  Tandy 285 

XXXI  Only  a  Woman 293 

XXXII  The  Riddle  Explained        .          298 

XXXIII  At  Crisis 304 

XXXIV  A  Cheer  for  Little  Missie 316 

XXXV  The  End  of  a  Struggle 323 


A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  EANKS 


I 


The  Final  Fight 


GHE  slender  remnant  of  Lee's  artillery  swung 
slowly  into  position  a  few  miles  west  of  Appo- 
mattox Court  House.  Wearily — but  with 
spirit  still — the  batteries  parked  their  guns  in  a  field 
facing  a  strip  of  woodland.  The  guns  were  few  in 
number  now,  but  they  were  all  that  was  left  of  those 
that  had  done  battle  on  a  score  of  historic  fields. 

Lee  had  been  forced  out  of  his  works  at  Richmond 
and  Petersburg  a  week  before.     Ever  since,  with  that 


2  A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

calm  courage  which  had  sustained  him  throughout  the 
later  and  losing  years  of  the  war,  he  had  struggled 
and  battled,  in  an  effort;  to  retreat  to  the  Roanoke 
River.  He  had  hoped,  there  ,to  unite  the  remnant  of 
his  arto'y\with  what  iw$S  .left,  of  Johnston's  force,  and 
to  make  there  a  final  and  desperate  stand. 

In  this  purpose  he  had  been  baffled.  Grant's  forces 
were  on  his  southern  flank,  and  they  had  steadily 
pressed  him  back  toward  the  James  River  on  the 
north.  In  that  direction  there  was  no  thoroughfare 
for  him.  Neither  was  there  now  in  any  other.  Con- 
tinual battling  had  depleted  his  army  until  it  num- 
bered now  scarcely  more  than  ten  thousand  men  all 
told,  and  starvation  had  weakened  these  so  greatly 
that  only  the  heroism  of  despair  enabled  them  to  fight 
or  to  march  at  all. 

The  artillery  that  was  parked  out  there  in  front 
of  Appomattox  Court  House  was  only  a  feeble  rem- 
nant of  that  which  had  fought  so  long  and  so  de- 
terminedly. Gun  after  gun  had  been  captured.  Gun 
after  gun  had  been  dismounted  in  battle  struggle. 
Caisson  after  caisson  had  been  blown  up  by  the  ex- 
plosion of  shells  striking  them. 

Captain  Guilford  Duncan,  at  the  head  of  eleven 
mounted  men,  armed  only  with  sword  and  pistols, 
paused  before  entering  the  woodlands  in  front.  He 
looked  about  in  every  direction,  and,  with  an  eye  edu- 
cated by  long  experience  in  war,  he  observed  the 
absence  of  infantry  support,. 


THE  FINAL  FIGHT  S 

He  turned  to  Sergeant  Garrett,  who  rode  by  his 
side,  and  said  sadly: 

"  Garrett,  this  means  surrender.  General  Lee  has 
put  his  artillery  here  to  be  captured.  The  end  has 
come." 

Then  dismounting,  he  wearily  threw  himself  upon 
the  ground,  chewed  and  swallowed  a  few  grains  of 
corn, — the  only  rations  he  had, — and  sought  a  brief 
respite  of  sleep.  But  before  closing  his  eyes  he 
turned  to  Garrett  and  gave  the  command: 

"Post  a  sentinel  and  order  him  to  wake  us  when 
Sheridan  comes." 

This  command  brought  questions  from  the  men 
about  him.  They  were  privates  and  he  was  their 
captain,  it  is  true,  but  the  Southern  army  was  demo- 
cratic, and  these  men  were  accustomed  to  speak  with 
their  captain  with  eyes  on  a  level  with  his  own. 

"  Why  do  you  say, '  when  Sheridan  comes'  ?  "  asked 
one  of  Duncan's  command. 

"  Oh,  he  will  come,  of  course — and  quickly.  That 
is  the  program.  This  artillery  has  been  posted 
here  to  be  captured.  And  it  will  be  captured  within 
an  hour  or  two  at  furthest,  perhaps  within  a  few  min- 
utes, for  Sheridan  is  sleepless  and  his  force  is  not  only 
on  our  flank,  but  in  front  of  us.  There  is  very  little 
left  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  It  can  fight 
no  more.  It  is  going  to  surrender  here,  but  in  the 
meantime  there  may  be  a  tidy  little  scrimmage  in  this 
.strip  of  woods,  and  I  for  one  want  to  have  my  share 


4  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

in  it.     Now  let  me  go  to  sleep  and  wake  me  when 
Sheridan  comes." 

In  a  minute  the  captain  was  asleep.  So  were  all 
his  men  except  the  sentinel  posted  to  do  the  necessary 
waking. 

That  came  all  too  quickly,  for  at  this  juncture  in 
the  final  proceedings  of  the  war  Sheridan  was  vigor- 
ously carrying  out  Grant's  laconic  instruction  to 
"press  things."  When  the  sentinel  waked  the  cap- 
tain, Sheridan's  lines  were  less  than  fifty  yards  in 
front  and  were  pouring  heavy  volleys  into  the  un- 
supported Confederate  artillery  park. 

Guilford  Duncan  and  his  men  were  moved  to  no 
excitement  by  this  situation.  Their  nerves  had  been 
schooled  to  steadiness  and  their  minds  to  calm  under 
any  conceivable  circumstances  by  four  years  of  vastly 
varied  fighting.  Without  the  slightest  hurry  they 
mounted  their  horses  in  obedience  to  Duncan's  brief 
command.  He  led  them  at  once  into  the  presence  of 
Colonel  Cabell,  whose  battalion  of  artillery  lay  nearest 
to  him.  As  they  sat  upon  their  horses  in  the  leaden 
hailstorm,  with  countenances  as  calm  as  if  they  had 
been  entering  a  drawing  room,  Duncan  touched  his 
cap  to  Colonel  Cabell  and  said : 

"Colonel,  I  am  under  nobody's  orders  here.  I 
have  eleven  men  with  me,  all  of  them,  as  you  know, 
as  good  artillerymen  as  there  are  in  the  army.  Can 
you  let  us  handle  some  guns  for  you?  " 

"No,"  answered  Colonel  Cabell;  "I  have  lost  so 


THE  FINAL  FIGHT  5 

many  guns  already  that  I  have  twenty  men  to  each 
piece."     Then,  after  a  moment's  pause,  he  added: 

"  You,  Captain,  cannot  fail  to  understand  what  all 
this  means." 

"  I  quite  understand  that,  Colonel,"  answered  Dun- 
can, "  but  as  I  was  in  at  the  beginning  of  this  war,  I 
have  a  strong  desire  to  be  in  at  the  end  of  it." 

The  Colonel's  cannon  were  firing  vigorously  by  this 
time  at  the  rate  of  six  or  eight  shots  to  the  minute 
from  each  gun,  but  he  calmly  looked  over  the  little 
party  on  horseback  and  responded: 

"You  have  some  good  horses  there,  and  this  is 
[April.  You  will  need  your  horses  in  your  farming 
operations.  You  had  better  take  them  and  your  men 
out  of  here.  You  can  do  no  good  by  staying.  This 
fight  is  a  formality  pure  and  simple,  a  preliminary 
to  the  final  surrender." 

"Then  you  order  me  to  withdraw?"  asked  Dun- 
can. 

"Yes,  certainly,  and  peremptorily  if  you  wish, 
though  you  are  not  under  my  command,"  answered 
Colonel  Cabell.  "  It  is  the  best  thing  you  can  do  for 
yourself,  for  your  men,  for  your  horses,  and  for  the 
country." 

Duncan  immediately  obeyed  the  order,  in  a  degree 
at  least.  He  promptly  withdrew  his  men  to  the  top 
of  a  little  hillock  in  the  rear  and  there  watched  the 
progress  of  the  final  fight.  His  nerves  were  all 
a-c[uiver.     He  was  a  young  man,  twenty-five  years 


6  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

old  perhaps,  full  of  vigor,  full  of  enthusiasm,  full  of 
fight.  He  was  a  trifle  less  than  six  feet  high,  with  a 
lithe  and  symmetrical  body,  lean  almost  to  emaciation 
by  reason  of  arduous  service  and  long  starvation. 
He  had  a  head  that  instantly  attracted  attention  by 
its  unusual  size  and  its  statuesque  shape.  He  was 
bronzed  almost  to  the  complexion  of  a  mulatto,  but 
without  any  touch  of  yellow  in  the  bronze.  He  was 
dark  by  nature,  of  intensely  nervous  temperament, 
and  obviously  a  man  capable  of  enormous  determina- 
tion and  unfaltering  endurance. 

He  had  not  yet  lost  the  instinct  of  battle,  and  it 
galled  him  that  he  must  sit  idly  there  on  his  horse, 
with  his  men  awaiting  his  orders,  simply  observ- 
ing a  fight  in  which  he  strongly  desired  to  partici- 
pate. He  could  see  the  Federal  lines  gradually  clos- 
ing in  upon  both  flanks  of  the  artillery,  with  the 
certainty  that  they  must  presently  envelop  and  cap- 
ture it.  Seasoned  soldier  that  he  was,  he  could  not 
endure  the  thought  of  standing  still  while  such  a  work 
of  war  was  going  on. 

Seeing  the  situation  he  turned  to  his  men,  who  were 
armed  only  with  swords  and  pistols,  and  in  a  voice  so 
calm  that  it  belied  his  impulse,  he  said  to  them : 

"This  is  our  last  chance  for  a  fight,  boys.  I  am 
going  into  the  middle  of  that  mix!  Anybody  who 
chooses  to  follow  me  can  come  along!" 

Every  man  in  that  little  company  of  eleven  had  two 
pistols  in  his  saddle  holsters  and  two  upon  his  hips, 


THE  PINAL  FIGHT  1 

and  every  man  carried  in  addition  a  heavy  cavalry 
saber  capable  of  doing  execution  at  close  quarters. 
They  were  gentlemen  soldiers,  all.  The  cause  for 
which  they  had  battled  for  four  long  years  was  as 
dear  to  them  now  as  it  ever  had  been.  More  im- 
portant still,  their  courage  was  as  unflinching  in 
this  obvious  climax  and  catastrophe  of  the  war  they 
had  waged,  as  it  had  been  at  Bull  Run  in  the  begin- 
ning of  that  struggle,  or  in  the  Seven  Days'  Fight, 
or  at  Fredericksburg,  or  Chancellorsville,  or  Gettys- 
burg, or  Cold  Harbor.  Duncan  had  not  doubted  their 
response  for  one  moment,  and  he  was  not  disappointed 
in  the  vigor  with  which  they  followed  him  as  he  led 
them  into  this  final  fight.  As  they  dashed  forward 
their  advance  was  quickly  discovered  by  the  alert 
enemy,  and  a  destructive  fire  of  carbines  was  opened 
upon  them.  At  that  moment  they  were  at  the  trot. 
Instantly  Duncan  gave  the  commands: 

"Gallop!     Charge!" 

With  that  demoniacal  huntsman's  cry  which  is 
known  in  history  as  the  "  Rebel  Yell,"  the  little  squad 
dashed  forward  and  plunged  into  the  far  heavier  lines 
of  the  enemy.  There  was  a  detached  Federal  gun 
there  doing  its  work.  It  was  a  superb  twelve-pounder, 
and  Duncan's  men  quickly  captured  it  with  its  limber- 
chest.  Instantly  dismounting,  and  without  waiting 
for  orders  from  him,  they  turned  it  upon  the  enemy 
with  vigorous  effect.  But  they  were  so  fearfully  over- 
matched  in   numbers  that   their   work   endured   for 


8  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

scarcely  more  than  a  minute.  They  fired  a  dozen 
shots,  perhaps,  but  they  were  speedily  overwhelmed, 
and  in  another  instant  Duncan  ordered  them  to  mount 
and  retire  again,  firing  Parthian  shots  from  their 
pistols  as  they  went. 

When  he  again  reached  the  little  hill  to  which  he 
had  retired  at  the  beginning  of  the  action,  Duncan 
looked  around  him  and  saw  that  only  seven  of  his 
eleven  men  remained.  The  other  four  had  paid  a 
final  tribute  of  their  lives  to  what  was  now  obviously 
"  The  Lost  Cause." 

By  this  time  the  fight  was  over,  and  practically  all 
that  remained  of  the  artillery  of  the  Army  of  North- 
ern Virginia  was  in  possession  of  the  enemy. 

But  that  enemy  was  a  generous  one,  and,  foresee- 
ing as  it  did  the  surrender  that  must  come  with  the 
morning,  it  made  no  assault  upon  this  wandering 
squad  of  brave  but  beaten  men,  who  were  sadly  looking 
upon  the  disastrous  end  of  the  greatest  war  in  human 
history. 

Captain  Duncan's  party  were  on  a  bald  hill  within 
easy  range  of  the  carbines  of  Sheridan's  men,  but  not 
a  shot  was  fired  at  them,  and  not  so  much  as  a  squad 
was  sent  out  to  demand  their  surrender. 

Night  was  now  near  at  hand  and  Guilford  Duncan 
turned  to  his  men  and  said: 

"  The  war  is  practically  over,  I  suppose ;  but  I  for 
one  intend  to  stick  to  the  game  as  long  as  it  lasts. 
General  Lee  will  surrender  his  army  to-night  or  to- 


THE  FINAL  FIGHT  9 

morrow  morning,  but  General  Johnston  still  has  an 
army  in  the  field  in  North  Carolina.  It  is  barely  pos- 
sible that  we  may  get  to  him.  It  is  my  purpose  to 
try.     How  many  of  you  want  to  go  with  me?  n 

The  response  was  instantaneous  and  unanimous. 

"We'll  all  stick  by  you,  Captain,  Hill  the  cows 
come  home,'"  they  cried. 

"Very  well,"  he  answered.  "We  must  march  to 
James  River  to-night  and  cross  it.  We  must  make 
our  way  into  the  mountains  and  through  Lynchburg, 
if  possible,  into  North  Carolina.    We'll  try,  anyhow." 

All  night  long  they  marched.  They  secured  some 
coarse  food-stuffs  at  a  mill  which  they  passed  on  their 
way  up  into  the  mountains.  There  for  a  week  they 
struggled  to  make  their  way  southward,  fighting  now 
and  then,  not  with  Federal  troops,  for  there  were  none 
there,  but  with  marauders.  These  were  the  offscour- 
ings of  both  armies,  and  of  the  negro  population  of 
that  region.  They  made  themselves  the  pests  of  Vir- 
ginia at  that  time.  Their  little  bands  consisted  of 
deserters  from  both  armies,  dissolute  negroes,  and  all 
other  kinds  of  "  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort."  They 
raided  plantations.  They  stole  horses.  They  terror- 
ized women.  They  were  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  Gen- 
eral Grant's  officers,  who  were  placed  in  strategic 
positions  to  prevent  the  possible  occurrence  of  a 
guerrilla  warfare,  and  who  therefore  could  not  scatter 
their  forces  for  the  policing  of  a  land  left  desolate 
and  absolutely  lawless. 


10  A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE^  HANKS 

In  many  parts  of  the  country  which  were  left  with- 
out troops  to  guard  them,  at  a  time  when  no  civil 
government  existed,  these  marauders  played  havoc 
in  an  extraordinary  way.  But  the  resoluteness  of 
General  Grant's  administration  soon  suppressed  them. 
Whenever  he  caught  them  he  hanged  or  shot  them 
without  mercy,  and  with  small  consideration  for  for- 
malities. In  the  unprotected  districts  he  authorized 
the  ex-Confederates,  upon  their  promise  to  lend  aid 
against  the  inauguration  of  guerrilla  warfare,  to 
suppress  them  on  their  own  account,  and  they  did  so 
relentlessly. 

During  the  sojourn  in  the  mountains,  in  his  effort 
to  push  his  way  through  to  Johnston,  Guilford  Dun- 
can came  upon  a  plantation  where  only  women  were 
living  in  the  mansion  house,  A  company  of  these 
marauders  had  taken  possession  of  the  plantation,  oc- 
cupying its  negro  cabins  and  terrorizing  the  popula- 
tion of  the  place.  When  Duncan  rode  up  with  his 
seven  armed  men  he  instantly  took  command  and  as- 
sumed the  role  of  protector.  First  of  all  he  posted 
his  men  as  sentries  for  the  protection  of  the  planta- 
tion homestead.  Next  he  sent  out  scouts,  including  a 
number  of  trusty  negroes  who  belonged  upon  the 
plantation,  to  find  out  where  the  marauders  were  lo- 
cated, and  what  their  numbers  were,  and  what  pur- 
pose they  might  seem  bent  upon.  From  the  reports 
of  these  scouts  he  learned  that  the  marauders  exceeded 
him  in  force  by  three  to  one,  or  more,  but  that  fact 


THE  FINAL  FIGHT  11 

in  no  way  appalled  him.  During  a  long  experience  in 
war  he  had  learned  well  the  lesson  that  numbers  count 
for  less  than  morale,  and  that  with  skill  and  resolute- 
ness a  small  force  may  easily  overcome  and  destroy  a 
larger  one. 

He  knew  now  that  his  career  as  a  Confederate  sol- 
dier was  at  an  end.  Federal  troops  had  occupied 
Lynchburg  and  all  the  region  round  about,  thus 
completely  cutting  him  off  from  any  possibility  of 
reaching  General  Johnston  in  North  Carolina.  He 
had  no  further  mission  as  a  military  officer  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy,  but  as  a  mere  man  of  courage 
and  vigor  he  had  before  him  the  duty  of  defending 
the  women  and  children  of  this  Virginia  plantation 
against  about  the  worst  and  most  desperate  type  of 
highwaymen  who  ever  organized  themselves  into  a 
force  for  purposes  of  loot  and  outrage. 

He  sent  at  once  for  the  best  negroes  on  the  planta- 
tion— the  negroes  who  had  proved  themselves  loyal  in 
their  affection  for  their  mistresses  throughout  the 
war.  Having  assembled  these  he  inquired  of  the 
women  what  arms  and  ammunition  they  had.  There 
were  the  usual  number  of  shotguns  belonging  to  a 
plantation,  and  a  considerable  supply  of  powder  and 
buckshot.  Duncan  assembled  the  negroes  in  the  great 
hall  of  the  plantation  house  and  said  to  them : 

"  I  have  seven  men  here,  all  armed  and  all  fighters.: 
I  have  arms  enough  for  you  boys  if  you  are  willing  to 
join  me  in  the  defense  of  the  ladies  on  this  plantation 


12  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

against  about  the  worst  set  of  scoundrels  that  ever 
lived  on  earth." 

Johnny,  the  head  dining-room  servant,  speaking 
for  all  the  rest,  replied : 

"In  co'se  we  is.  Jest  you  lead  us,  mahstah,  and 
you'll  see  how  we'll  do  de  wu'k." 

Then  Duncan  armed  the  negroes,  every  one  of 
whom  knew  how  to  use  a  gun,  so  that  he  needed  not 
instruct  them,  and  he  led  them  forth  with  his  own 
seasoned  soldiers  at  their  head. 

"  Now  then,"  he  said,  "  we  are  going  to  attack  these 
fellows,  and  you  know  perfectly  well  that  they  are  a 
lot  of  cowards,  and  sneaks,  and  scoundrels.  If  we 
are  all  resolute  we  can  whip  them  out  of  their  boots 
within  a  few  minutes.  Either  we  must  do  that,  or 
they  will  whip  us  out  of  our  boots  and  destroy  us.  I 
do  not  think  there  is  much  doubt  about  which  is 
going  to  whip.     Come  along,  boys." 

The  marauders  had  established  themselves  in  four 
or  five  of  the  negro  quarters  on  the  plantation,  and  in 
a  certain  sense  they  were  strongly  fortified.  That  is 
to  say,  they  were  housed  in  cabins  built  of  logs  too 
thick  for  any  bullet  to  penetrate  them.  Four  of 
these  cabins  were  so  placed  that  a  fire  from  the  door 
and  the  windows  of  either  of  them  would  completely 
command  the  entrance  of  each  of  the  others.  But  to 
offset  that,  and  to  offset  also  the  superiority  of  num- 
bers which  the  marauders  enjoyed,  Guilford  Duncan 
decided  upon  an  attack  by  night.     He  knew  that  he 


THE  FINAL  FIGHT  13 

was  outnumbered  by  two  or  three  to  one,  even  if  he 
counted  the  willing  but  untrained  negroes  whom  he 
had  enlisted  in  this  service.  But  he  did  not  despair  of 
success.  It  was  his  purpose  to  dislodge  the  marauders 
in  a  night  attack,  when  he  knew  that  they  could  not 
see  to  shoot  with  effect.  He  knew  also  that  "He  is 
thrice  armed  who  knows  his  quarrel  just." 

Cautioning  his  men  to  maintain  silence,  and  to 
advance  as  quickly  as  possible,  he  got  them  into  posi- 
tion and  suddenly  rushed  upon  the  first  of  the  four  or 
five  negro  quarters.  Knowing  that  the  door  of  this 
house  would  be  barricaded,  he  had  instructed  some  of 
the  negroes  to  bring  a  pole  with  them  which  might  be 
used  as  a  battering  ram.  With  a  rush  but  without 
any  hurrah, — for  Duncan  had  ordered  quiet  as  a  part 
of  his  plan  of  campaign, — the  negroes  carried  the 
great  pole  forward  and  instantly  crushed  in  the  door. 
Within  ten  seconds  afterwards  Duncan's  ex-Confed- 
erate soldiers,  with  their  pistols  in  use,  were  within 
the  house,  and  the  company  of  marauders  there  sur- 
rendered— those  of  them  who  had  not  fallen  before 
the  pistol  shots.  This  first  flush  of  victory  encour- 
aged the  negroes  under  his  command  so  far  that  what 
had  been  their  enthusiasm  became  a  positive  battle- 
madness.  Without  waiting  for  orders  from  him  they 
rushed  with  their  battering  ram  upon  the  other  houses 
occupied  by  the  marauders,  as  did  also  his  men,  who 
were  not  accustomed  to  follow,  but  rather  to  lead,  and 
within  a  few  minutes  all  of  those  negro  huts  were  in 


U  A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

his  possession,  and  all  their  occupants  were  in  effect 
his  prisoners. 

At  this  moment  Guilford  Duncan,  who  had  now  no 
legal  or  military  authority  over  his  men,  lost  control 
of  them.  Both  the  negroes  and  the  white  men  seemed 
to  go  mad.  They  recognized  in  the  marauders  no 
rights  of  a  military  kind,  no  title  to  be  regarded  as 
fighting  men,  and  no  conceivable  claim  upon  their 
conquerors'  consideration.  Both  the  negroes  and  the 
white  men  were  merciless  in  their  slaughter  of  the 
marauding  highwaymen.  Once,  in  the  melee,  Guil- 
ford Duncan  endeavored  to  check  their  enthusiasm  as 
a  barbarity,  but  his  men  responded  in  quick,  bullet- 
like words,  indicating  their  idea  that  these  men  were 
not  soldiers  entitled  to  be  taken  prisoners,  but  were 
beasts  of  prey,  rattlesnakes,  mad  dogs,  enemies  of  the 
human  race,  whose  extermination  it  was  the  duty  of 
every  honest  man  to  seek  and  to  accomplish  as  quickly 
as  possible. 

This  thought  was  conveyed  rather  in  ejaculations 
than  in  statements  made,  and  Guilford  Duncan  saw 
that  there  was  neither  time  nor  occasion  for  argu- 
ment. The  men  under  his  command  felt  that  they 
were  engaged  in  defending  the  lives  and  the  honor  of 
women  and  children,  and  they  were  in  no  degree  dis- 
posed to  hesitate  at  slaughter  where  so  precious  a 
purpose  inspired  them.  Their  attitude  of  mind  was 
uncompromising.  Their  resolution  was  unalterable. 
Their  impulse  was  to  kill,  and  their  victims  were 


THE  FINAL  FIGHT  15 

men  of  so  despicable  a  kind  that  after  a  moment's 
thought  Guilford  Duncan's  impulse  was  to  let  his  men 

alone. 

The  contest  lasted  for  a  very  brief  while.  The 
number  of  the  slaughtered  in  proportion  to  the  total 
number  of  men  engaged  was  appalling.  But  this  was 
not  all.  To  it  was  immediately  added  the  hasty  hang- 
ing of  men  to  the  nearest  trees,  and  Guilford  Dun- 
can was  powerless  to  prevent  that.  The  negroes, 
loyal  to  the  mistresses  whom  they  had  served  from 
infancy,  had  gone  wild  in  their  enthusiasm  of  de- 
fense. They  ran  amuck,  and  when  the  morning  came 
there  was  not  one  man  of  all  those  marauders  left 
alive  to  tell  the  story  of  the  conflict. 

•  •••'• 

In  the  meanwhile  Guilford  Duncan,  by  means  of 
his  men,  had  gathered  information  in  every  direction. 
He  knew  now  that  all  hope  was  gone  of  his  joining 
Johnston's  army,  even  if  that  army  had  not  surren- 
dered, as  by  this  time  it  probably  had  done.  He 
therefore  brought  his  men  together.  Most  of  them 
lived  in  those  mountains  round  about,  or  in  the  lower 
country  east  of  them,  and  so  he  said  to  them : 

"  Men,  the  war  is  over.  Most  of  you,  as  I  under- 
stand it,  live  somewhere  near  here,  or  within  fifty 
miles  of  here.  As  the  last  order  that  I  shall  ever 
issue  as  a  captain,  I  direct  you  now  to  return  to  your 
homes  at  once.  My  advice  to  you  is  to  go  to  work 
and  rebuild  your  fortunes  as  best  you  can.     We've 


16  A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

had  our  last  fight.  We've  done  our  duty  like  men. 
We  must  now  do  the  best  that  we  can  for  ourselves 
under  extremely  adverse  circumstances.  Go  home. 
Cultivate  your  fields.  Take  care  of  your  families, 
and  be  as  good  citizens  in  peace  as  you  have  been  good 
soldiers  in  war." 

There  was  a  hurried  consultation  among  the  men. 
Presently  Sergeant  Garrett  spoke  for  the  rest  and 
said: 

"  We  will  not  go  home,  Captain  Duncan,  until  each 
one  of  us  has  written  orders  from  you  to  do  so.  Some 
of  us  fellows  have  children  in  our  homes,  and  the  rest 
of  us  may  have  children  hereafter.  We  want  them  to 
know,  as  the  years  go  by,  that  we  did  not  desert  our 
cause,  even  in  its  dying  hours,  that  we  did  not  quit 
the  army  until  we  were  ordered  to  quit.  We  ask  of 
you,  for  each  of  us,  a  written  order  to  go  home,  or  to 
go  wherever  else  you  may  order  us  to  go." 

The  Captain  fully  understood  the  loyalty  of  feel- 
ing which  underlay  this  request,  and  he  promptly 
responded  to  it.  Taking  from  his  pocket  a  number 
of  old  letters  and  envelopes,  he  searched  out  what- 
ever scraps  there  might  be  of  blank  paper.  Upon 
these  scraps  he  issued  to  each  man  of  his  little  com- 
pany a  peremptory  order  to  return  to  his  home,  with 
an  added  statement  in  the  case  of  each  that  he  had 
"served  loyally,  bravely,  and  well,  even  unto  the 
end." 

That  night,  before  their  final  parting,  the  little 


THE  FINAL  FIGHT  17 

company  slept  together  in  the  midst  of  a  cluster  of 
pine  trees,  with  only  one  sentry  on  duty. 

The  next  day  came  the  parting.  The  captain, 
with  tears  dimming  his  vision,  shook  hands  with  each 
of  his  men  in  turn,  saying  to  each,  with  choking 
utterance:     "Good-by!     God  bless  you!" 

Then  the  spokesman  of  the  men,  Sergeant  Garrett, 
asked : 

"Are  you  going  home,  Captain  Duncan  ?  * 

For  twenty  seconds  the  young  Captain  stared  at 
his  men,  making  no  answer.  Then,  mastering  him- 
self, and  speaking  as  one  dazed,  he  replied : 

"Home?  Home?  On  all  God's  earth  I  have  no 
home!" 

Instantly  he  put  spurs  to  his  horse,  half  uncon- 
sciously turning  toward  the  sunset. 

A  moment  later  he  vanished  from  view,  over  the 
crest  of  a  hill. 


II 

Alone  in  the  High  Mountains 

THE  young  man  rode  long  and  late  that 
night.  His  way  lay  always  upward  to- 
ward the  crests  of  the  high  mountains  of 
the  Blue  Ridge  Range. 

The  roads  he  traversed  were  scarcely  more  than 
trails — too  steep  in  their  ascent  to  have  been  traveled 
by  wagons  that  might  wear  them  into  thoroughfares. 
During  the  many  hours  of  his  riding  he  saw  no  sign  of 
human  habitation  anywhere,  and  no  prospect  of  find- 
ing food  for  himself  or  his  horse,  though  both  were 
famishing. 

About  midnight,  however,  he  came  upon  a  bit  of 
wild  pasture  land  on  a  steep  mountain  side,  where  his 
horse  at  least  might  crop  the  early  grass  of  the  spring. 
There  he  halted,  removed  his  saddle  and  bridle,  and 
turned  the  animal  loose,  saying: 

"Poor  beast!  You  will  not  stray  far  away. 
There's  half  an  acre  of  grass  here,  with  bare  rocks 
all  around  it.  Your  appetite  will  be  leash  enough  to 
keep  you  from  wandering." 

Then  the  young  man — no  longer  a  captain  now,  but 
18 


ALONE  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS  19 

a  destitute,  starving  wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
— threw  himself  upon  a  carpet  of  pine  needles  in  a 
little  clump  of  timber,  made  a  pillow  of  his  saddle, 
drew  the  saddle  blanket  over  his  shoulders  to  keep  out 
the  night  chill,  loosened  his  belt,  and  straightway  fell 
asleep. 

Before  doing  so,  however, — faint  with  hunger  as 
he  was,  and  weary  to  the  verge  of  collapse, — he  had 
a  little  ceremony  to  perform,  and  he  performed  it — 
in  answer  to  a  sentimental  fancy.  With  the  point 
of  his  sword  he  found  an  earth-bank  free  of  rock,  and 
dug  a  trench  there.  In  it  he  placed  his  sword  in  its 
scabbard  and  with  its  belt  and  sword-knot  attached. 
Then  drawing  the  earth  over  it  and  stamping  it  down, 
he  said: 

"  That  ends  the  soldier  chapter  of  my  life.  I  must 
turn  to  the  work  of  peace  now.  I  have  no  fireplace 
over  which  to  hang  the  trusty  blade.  It  is  better  to 
bury  it  here  in  the  mountains  in  the  midst  of  desola- 
tion, and  forever  to  forget  all  that  it  suggests." 

When  he  waked  in  the  morning  a  soaking,  per- 
sistent, pitiless  rain  was  falling.  The  young  man's 
clothing  was  so  completely  saturated  that,  as  he  stood 
erect,  the  water  streamed  from  his  elbows,  and  he  felt 
it  trickling  down  his  body  and  his  legs. 

"This  is  a  pretty  good  substitute  for  a  bath,"  he 
thought,  as  he  removed  his  garments,  and  with  strong, 
nervous  hands,  wrung  the  water  out  of  them  as  laun- 
dresses do  with  linen. 


20  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE   RANKS 

He  had  no  means  of  kindling  a  fire,  and  there 
was  no  time  for  that  at  any  rate.  Guilford  Duncan 
had  begun  to  feel  the  pangs  not  of  mere  hunger,  but 
of  actual  starvation — the  pains  that  mean  collapse  and 
speedy  death.  He  knew  that  he  must  find  food  for 
himself  and  that  quickly.  Otherwise  he  must  die 
there,  helpless  and  alone,  on  the  desolate  mountain 
side. 

He  might,  indeed,  kill  his  horse  and  live  for  a  few 
days  upon  its  flesh,  until  it  should  spoil.  But  such 
relief  would  be  only  a  postponing  of  the  end,  and  with- 
out the  horse  he  doubted  that  he  could  travel  far 
toward  that  western  land  which  he  had  half  unwit- 
tingly fixed  upon  as  his  goal. 

He  was  well  up  in  the  mountains  now,  and  near  the 
crest  of  the  great  range.  The  Valley  lay  beyond,  and 
he  well  knew  that  he  would  find  no  food  supplies  in 
that  region  when  he  should  come  to  cross  it.  Sheridan 
had  done  a  perfect  work  of  war  there,  so  devastating 
one  of  the  most  fruitful  regions  on  all  God's  earth 
that  in  picturesque  words  he  had  said:  "The  crow 
that  flies  over  the  Valley  of  Virginia  must  carry  his 
rations  with  him.', 

In  the  high  mountains  matters  were  not  much  bet- 
ter. There  had  been  no  battling  up  there  in  the  land 
of  the  sky,  but  the  scars  and  the  desolation  of  war 
were  manifest  even  upon  mountain  sides  and  mountain 
tops. 

For  four  years  the  men  who  dwelt  in  the  rude  log 


ALONE  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS  21 

cabins  of  that  frost-bitten  and  sterile  region  had  been 
serving  as  volunteers  in  the  army,  fighting  for  a  cause 
which  was  none  of  theirs  and  which  they  did  not  at 
all  understand  or  try  to  understand.  They  fought 
upon  instinct  alone.  It  had  always  been  the  custom 
of  the  mountain  dwellers  to  shoulder  their  guns  and 
go  into  the  thick  of  every  fray  which  seemed  to  them 
in  any  way  to  threaten  their  native  land.  They  went 
blindly,  they  fought  desperately,  and  they  endured 
manfully.  Ignorant,  illiterate,  abjectly  poor,  inured 
to  hardship  through  generations,  they  asked  no  ques- 
tions the  answers  to  which  they  could  not  understand. 
It  was  enough  for  them  to  know  that  their  native  land 
was  invaded  by  an  armed  foe.  Whenever  that  oc- 
curred they  were  ready  to  meet  force  with  force,  and 
to  do  their  humble  mightiest  to  drive  that  foe  away 
or  to  destroy  him,  without  asking  even  who  he  was. 

It  had  been  so  in  all  the  Indian  wars  and  in  the 
Revolutionary  struggle,  and  it  was  so  again  in  the 
war  between  the  States.  As  soon  as  the  call  to  arms 
was  issued,  these  sturdy  mountaineers  almost  to  a 
man  abandoned  their  rocky  and  infertile  fields  to  the 
care  of  their  womankind  and  went  to  war,  utterly 
regardless  of  consequences  to  themselves. 

During  this  last  absence  of  four  years  their  homes 
had  fallen  into  fearful  desolation.  Those  homes  were 
log  cabins,  chinked  and  daubed,  mostly  having  earthen 
floors  and  chimneys  built  of  sticks  thickly  plastered 
with  mud.     But  humble  as  they  were,  they  were  homes 


n  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

and  they  held  the  wives  and  children  whom  these  men 
loved. 

All  that  was  primitive  in  American  life  survived 
without  change  in  the  high  mountains  of  Virginia  and 
the  Carolinas.  In  the  Piedmont  country  east  of  the 
Blue  Ridge,  and  in  the  tide-water  country  beyond, 
until  the  war  came  there  were  great  plantations,  where 
wealthy,  or  well-to-do,  and  highly  educated  planters 
lived  in  state  with  multitudinous  slaves  to  till  their 
fertile  fields. 

West  of  the  Blue  Ridge  and  between  that  range  and 
the  Alleghenies  lay  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  a  land  as 
fruitful  as  Canaan  itself. 

In  that  Valley  there  dwelt  in  simple  but  abundant 
plenty  the  sturdy  "  Dutchmen,"  as  they  were  improp- 
erly called, — men  of  German  descent, — who  had 
pushed  their  settlements  southward  from  Pennsyl- 
vania along  the  Valley,  establishing  themselves  in  the 
midst  of  fertile  fields,  owning  few  slaves,  and  tilling 
their  own  lands,  planting  orchards  everywhere,  and 
building  not  only  their  houses,  but  their  barns  and  all 
their  outbuildings  stoutly  of  the  native  stone  that 
lay  ready  to  their  hands. 

That  region  was  now  as  barren  as  Sahara  by 
reason  of  the  devastation  that  Sheridan  had  inflicted 
upon  it  with  the  deliberate  and  merciless  strategic 
purpose  of  rendering  it  uninhabitable  and  in  that 
way  making  of  it  a  no-thoroughfare  for  Confederate 
armies  on  march  toward  the  country  north  of  the 


ALONE  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS  2S 

Potomac,  or  on  the  way  to  threaten  Washington 
City. 

The  little  mountain  homesteads  had  been  spared 
this  devastation.  But  their  case  was  not  much  better 
than  that  of  the  more  prosperous  plantations  on  the 
east,  or  that  of  the  richly  fruitful  Valley  farms  on 
the  west.  In  war  it  is  not  "the  enemy"  alone  who 
lays  waste.  Such  little  cribs  and  granaries  and  smoke 
houses  as  these  poor  mountain  dwellers  owned  had 
been  despoiled  of  their  stores  to  feed  the  armies  in  the 
field.  Their  boys,  even  those  as  young  as  fourteen^ 
had  been  drawn  into  the  army.  Their  hogs,  their 
sheep,  and  the  few  milch  cows  they  possessed,  had  been 
taken  away  from  them.  Their  scanty  oxen  had  been 
converted  into  army  beef,  and  those  of  them  who 
owned  a  horse  or  a  mule  had  been  compelled  to  sur- 
render the  animal  for  military  use,  receiving  in  return 
only  Confederate  treasury  notes,  now  worth  no  more 
than  so  much  of  waste  paper. 

Nevertheless  Guilford  Duncan  perfectly  under- 
stood that  he  must  look  to  the  impoverished  people  of 
the  high  mountains  for  a  food  supply  in  this?  his  sore 
extremity.  Therefore,  instead  of  crossing  the  range 
by  way  of  any  of  the  main-traveled  passes,  he  pushed 
his  grass-refreshed  steed  straight  up  Mount  Pleasant 
to  its  topmost  heights. 

There,  about  noon,  he  came  upon  a  lonely  cabin 
whose  owner  had  reached  home  from  the  war  only  a 
day  or  two  earlier. 


U  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

There  was  an  air  of  desolation  and  decay  about  the 
place,  but  knowing  the  ways  of  the  mountaineers  the 
young  man  did  not  despair  of  securing  some  food 
there.  For  even  when  the  mountaineer  is  most  pros- 
perous his  fences  are  apt  to  be  down,  his  roof  out  of 
repair,  and  all  his  surroundings  to  wear  the  look  of 
abandonment  in  despair. 

Duncan  began  by  asking  for  dinner  for  himself 
and  his  horse,  and  the  response  was  what  he  expected 
in  that  land  of  poverty-stricken  but  always  generous 
hospitality. 

"Ain't  got  much  to  offer  you,  Cap'n',"  said  the 
owner,  "  but  sich  as  it  is  you're  welcome." 

Meanwhile  he  had  given  the  horse  a  dozen  ears  of 
corn,  saying: 

"Reckon  't  won't  hurt  him.  He  don't  look  's  if 
he'd  been  a  feedin'  any  too  hearty  an'  I  reckon  a 
dozen  ears  won't  founder  him." 

For  dinner  there  was  a  scanty  piece  of  bacon, 
boiled  with  wild  mustard  plants  for  greens,  and  some 
pones  of  corn  bread. 

To  Guilford  Duncan,  in  his  starving  condition,  this 
seemed  a  veritable  feast.  The  eating  of  it  so  far  re- 
freshed him  that  he  cheerfully  answered  all  the  ques- 
tions put  to  him  by  his  shirt-sleeved  host. 

It  is  a  tradition  in  Virginia  that  nobody  can  ask 
so  many  questions  as  a  "  Yankee,"  and  yet  there  was 
never  a  people  so  insistently  given  to  asking  questions 
of  a  purely  and  impertinently  personal  character  as 


ALONE  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS  25 

were  the  Virginians  of  anything  less  than  the  higher 
and  gentler  class.  They  questioned  a  guest,  not  so 
much  because  of  any  idle  curiosity  concerning  his  af- 
fairs, as  because  of  a  friendly  desire  to  manifest  in- 
terest in  him  and  in  what  might  concern  him. 

"What  mout  your  name  be,  Cap'n?"  the  host  be- 
gan, as  they  sat  at  dinner. 

"  My  name  is  Guilford  Duncan,"  replied  the  young 
man.  "  But  I  am  not  a  Captain  now.  I'm  only  a 
very  poor  young  man — greatly  poorer  than  you  are, 
for  at  least  you  own  a  home  and  a  little  piece  of  the 
mountain  top,  while  I  own  no  inch  of  God's  earth  or 
anything  else  except  my  horse,  my  four  pistols,  my; 
saddle  and  bridle  and  the  clothes  I  wear." 

"What's  your  plan?  Goin'  to  settie  in  the  moun- 
tings? They  say  there'll  be  big  money  in  'stillm* 
whisky  an'  not  a-payin'  of  the  high  tax  on  it.  It's 
a  resky  business,  or  will  be,  when  the  Yanks  get  their- 
selves  settled  down  into  possession,  like ;  but  I  kin  see 
you're  game  fer  resks,  an'  ef  you  want  a  workin' 
pardner,  I'm  your  man.  There's  a  water  power  just 
a  little  way  down  the  mounting,  in  a  valley  that  one 
good  man  with  a  rifle  kin  defend." 

"Thank  you  for  your  offer,"  answered  Duncan. 
"  But  I'm  not  thinking  of  settling  in  the  mountains. 
I'm  going  to  the  West,  if  I  can  get  there.  Now,  to 
do  that,  I  must  cross  the  Valley,  and  I  must  have  some 
provisions.  Can  you  sell  me  a  side  of  bacon,  a  little 
bag  of  meal,  and  a  little  salt?  " 


26  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"  What  kin  you  pay  with,  Mister?  " 
"  Well,  I  have  no  money,  of  course,  except  worthless 
Confederate  paper,  but  I  have  two  pairs  of  Colt's 
*  Navy  Six '  revolvers,  and  I'd  be  glad  to  give  you  one 
pair  of  them  for  my  dinner,  my  horse's  feed,  and  the 
provisions  I  have  mentioned." 

"Now  look-a-here,  Mister,"  broke  in  the  moun- 
taineer, rising  and  straightening  himself  to  his  full 
height  6f  six  feet  four.  "  When  you  come  to  my  door 
you  was  mighty  hungry.  You  axed  fer  a  dinner  an' 
a  hoss  feed,  an'  I've  done  give  'em  to  you,  free,  gratis, 
an'  fer  nothin'.  No  man  on  the  face  o'  God's  yearth 
kin  say  as  how  he  ever  come  to  Si  Watkins's  house 
in  need  of  a  dinner  an'  a  hoss  feed  'thout  a  gittin' 
both.  An'  no  man  kin  say  as  how  Si  Watkins  ever 
took  a  cent  o'  pay  fer  a  entertainin'  of  angels  un- 
awares as  the  preachers  says.  Them's  my  principles, 
an'  when  you  offer  to  pay  fer  a  dinner  an'  a  hoss 
feed,  you  insults  my  principles." 

"  I  sincerely  beg  your  pardon,"  answered  Duncan 
hurriedly.  "  I  am  very  grateful  indeed  for  your  hos- 
pitality, and  as  a  Virginian  I  heartily  sympathize  with 
your  sentiment  about  not  taking  pay  for  food  and 

lodging,  but " 

"That's  all  right,  Mister.  You  meant  fa'r  an' 
squa'r.  But  you  know  how  it  is.  Chargin'  fer  a 
dinner  an'  a  hoss  feed  is  low  down  Yankee  business. 
Tavern  keepers  does  it,  too,  but  Si  Watkins  ain't  no 
tavern  keeper  an'  he  ain't  no  Yankee,  neither.     So 


ALONE  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS  27 

that's  the  end  o'  that  little  skirmish.  But  when  it 
comes  to  furnishin'  you  with  a  side  o'  bacon  an'  some 
meal  an'  salt,  that's  more  differenter.  That's  busi- 
ness. There's  mighty  little  meal  an'  mighty  few 
sides  o'  bacon  in  these  here  parts,  but  I  don't  mind 
a-tellin'  you  as  how  my  wife's  done  managed  to  hide 
a  few  sides  o'  bacon  an'  a  little  meal  from  the  fellers 
what  come  up  here  to  collect  the  tax  in  kind.  One  of 
'em  found  her  hidin'  place  one  day,  an'  was  jest 
a-goin'  to  confisticate  the  meat  when,  with  the  sperrit 
of  a  woman,  that's  in  her  as  big  as  a  house,  she  drawed 
a  bead  on  him  an'  shot  him.  He  was  carried  down 
the  mounting  by  his  men,  an'  p'r'aps  he's  done  got 
well.  I  don't  know  an'  I  keers  less.  Anyhow,  we's 
done  got  a  few  sides  o'  bacon  an'  a  big  bag  o'  meal 
an'  a  bushel  o'  salt.  Ef  you  choose  to  take  one  o' 
them  sides  o'  bacon,  an'  a  little  meal  an'  salt,  an'  give 
me  one  o'  your  pistols,  I'm  quite  agreeable.  The 
gun  mout  come  in  handy  when  I  git  a  little  still 
a-goin',  down  there  in  the  holler." 

"  I'll  do  better  than  that,"  answered  Duncan.  "  I'll 
give  you  a  pair  of  the  pistols,  as  I  said." 

"Hold  on!  Go  a  leetle  slow,  Mister,  an'  don't 
forgit  nothin'.  You  preposed  to  gimme  the  p'ar  o' 
pistols  fer  the  bacon  an'  meal  an'  salt,  an*  fer  yer 
dinner  an'  hoss  feed.  I've  done  tole  you  as  how  Si 
Watkins  don't  never  take  no  pay  fer  a  dinner  an' 
a  hoss  feed.  So  you  can't  offer  me  the  p'ar  o' 
pistols    'thout    offerin'    to    pay    fer    yer    entertain- 


28  A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

merit  of  man  an'  beast,  an'  I  won't  have  that,  I  tell 
you." 

"Very  well,"  answered  Duncan;  "I  didn't  mean 
that.  I'll  give  you  one  of  the  pistols  in  payment  for 
the  supply  of  provisions.  That  will  end  the  business 
part  of  the  matter.  Now,  I'm  going  to  do  some- 
thing else  with  the  other  pistol — the  mate  of  that 
one." 

With  that  he  opened  his  pocket  knife  and  scratched 
on  the  silver  mounting  of  the  pistol's  butt  the  legend : 
"  To  Si  Watkins,  in  memory  of  a  visit ;  from  Guilford 
Duncan,  Cairo,  Illinois." 

Then  handing  the  inscribed  weapon  to  his  host  he 
said: 

"  I  have  a  right  to  make  you  a  little  present,  purely 
in  the  way  of  friendship,  and  not  as  '  pay '  for  any- 
thing at  all.  I  want  to  give  you  this  pistol,  and  I 
want  you  to  keep  it.  I  don't  know  where  I  am  going 
to  live  and  work  in  the  West,  and  I  don't  know  why 
I  wrote  '  Cairo,  Illinois '  as  my  address.  It  simply 
came  to  me  to  do  it.  Perhaps  it's  a  good  omen.  Any- 
how, I  shall  go  to  Cairo,  and  if  I  leave  there  I'll 
arrange  to  have  my  letters  forwarded  to  me,  where- 
ever  I  may  be.  So  if  you're  in  trouble  at  any  time 
you  can  write  to  me  at  Cairo.  I  am  as  poor  as  you 
are  now — yes,  poorer.  But  I  don't  mean  to  stay  poor. 
If  you're  in  trouble  at  any  time,  I'll  do  my  best  to 
see  you  through,  just  as  you  have  seen  me  through 
this  time." 


Ill 

The  New  Birth  of  Manhood 

HALF  an  hour  later  the  young  man  resumed 
his  journey  westward,  passing  down  the 
farther  slopes  of  the  mountain. 
"Wonder  why  I  wrote  'Cairo'  as  my  address,"  he 
thought,  as  his  trusty  horse  carefully  picked  his  way 
among  the  rocks  and  down  the  steeps.  "I  hadn't 
thought  of  Cairo  before  as  even  a  possible  destination. 
I  know  nobody  there.  I  know  absolutely  nothing 
about  the  town,  or  the  opportunities  it  may  offer. 
I'm  not  superstitious,  I  think,  but  somehow  this  thing 
impresses  me,  and  to  Cairo  I  shall  go— if  only  to  re- 
ceive Si  Watkins's  letter  when  it  comes,"  he  added 
with  a  smile. 

Then  he  began  a  more  practical  train  of  thought. 
"  I've  food  enough  now,"  he  reflected,  "  to  last  me 
scantily  for  a  few  days.  During  that  time  I  must 
make  my  way  as  far  as  I  can  toward  the  Ohio  River 
at  Pittsburg  or  Wheeling  or  Parkersburg.  When  I 
reach  the  River  I  must  have  money  enough  to  pay 
steamboat  fare  to  Cairo.  There  is  no  money  in  these 
parts,  but  West  Virginia  is  practically  a  Northern 


30  A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

State,  and  there  are  greenbacks  there.     I'll  sell  my 
remaining  pistols  there.     A  little  later  I'll  sell  my 
horse,  my   saddle,   and  my  bridle.     The  horse  is   a 
good  one,  and  so  is  the  saddle.     Surely  I  ought  to  get 
enough  for  them  to  pay  my  way  to  Cairo." 
Then  came  another  and  a  questioning  thought : 
"And  when  I  get  to  Cairo?     What  then?     I've  a 
good  university  education,   but   I   doubt  that  there 
is  a  ready  market  for  education  in  any  bustling  Mis- 
sissippi River  town,  just  now.     I'm  a  graduate  in 
law,  but  Heaven  knows  I  know  very  little  about  the 
profession  aside  from  the  broad  underlying  principles. 
Besides,  I  shall  have  no  money  with  which  to  open  an 
office,  and  who  is  going  to  employ  a  wandering  and 
utterly  destitute  stranger  to  take  charge  of  his  legal 
business  ?  " 

For  the  moment  discouragement  dominated  the 
young  man's  mind.  But  presently  there  came  to  him 
a  reflection  that  gave  new  birth  to  his  courage. 

"I'm  six  feet  high,"  he  thought,  "and  broad  in 
proportion.  I'm  in  perfect  physical  health.  I  have 
muscles  that  nothing  has  ever  yet  tired.  Between  the 
wilderness  and  Appomattox  I  have  had  an  extensive 
experience  in  shoveling  earth  and  other  hard  work. 
I'm  in  exceedingly  good  training — a  trifle  underfed, 
perhaps,  but  at  any  rate  I  carry  not  one  ounce  of 
superfluous  fat  on  my  person.  I  am  perfectly 
equipped  for  the  hardest  kind  of  physical  work  and  in 
a  busy  western  town  there  is  sure  to  be  work  enough 


NEW  BIRTH  OF  MANHOOD  SI 

of  that  kind  for  a  strong  and  willing  man  to  do.  I 
can  at  the  very  least  earn  enough  as  a  laborer  to  feed 
me  better  than  I've  been  fed  for  the  four  years  of 
war." 

Curiously  enough,  this  prospect  of  work  as  a  day 
laborer  greatly  cheered  the  young  man.  Instead  of 
depressing  his  spirits,  it  for  the  first  time  lifted  from 
his  soul  that  incubus  of  melancholy  with  which  every 
Confederate  soldier  of  his  class  was  at  first  oppressed. 
Ever  since  Grant  had  refused  in  the  Wilderness — a 
year  before — to  retire  beyond  the  river  after  receiving 
Lee's  tremendous  blows,  Guilford  Duncan  and  all 
Confederates  of  like  intelligence  had  foreseen  the  end 
and  had  recognized  its  coming  as  inevitable.  Never- 
theless, when  it  came  in  fact,  when  the  army  of 
Northern  Virginia  surrendered,  and  when  the  Con- 
federacy ceased  to  be,  the  event  was  scarcely  less 
shocking  and  depressing  to  their  minds  than  if  it 
had  been  an  unforeseen  and  unexpected  one. 

The  melancholy  that  instantly  took  possession  of 
such  minds  amounted  to  scarcely  less  than  insanity, 
and  for  a  prolonged  period  it  paralyzed  energy  and 
made  worse  the  ruin  that  war  had  wrought  in  the 
South. 

Fortunately  Guilford  Duncan,  thrown  at  once  and 
absolutely  upon  his  own  resources,  thus  quickly 
escaped  from  the  overshadowing  cloud. 

And  yet  his  case  seemed  worse  than  that  of  most  of 
his  comrades.     They,  at  least,  had  homes  of  some 


32  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

sort  to  go  to;  he  had  none.  There  was  for  them, 
debt  burdened  as  their  plantations  were,  at  least  a 
hope  that  some  way  out  might  ultimately  be  found. 
For  him  there  was  no  inch  of  ground  upon  which  he 
might  rest  even  a  hope. 

Born  of  an  old  family  he  had  been  bred  and  edu- 
cated as  one  to  whom  abundance  was  to  come  by  in- 
heritance, a  man  destined  from  birth  to  become  in 
time  the  master  of  a  great  patrimonial  estate. 

But  that  estate  was  honeycombed  with  hereditary 
debt,  the  result  of  generations  of  lavish  living,  waste- 
ful methods  of  agriculture,  and  over-generous  hos- 
pitality. About  the  time  when  war  came  there  came 
also  a  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  Guilford  Duncan's  father. 
Long  before  the  war  ended  the  elder  man  had  sur- 
rendered everything  he  had  in  the  world  to  his 
creditors.  He  had  then  enlisted  in  the  army,  though 
he  was  more  than  sixty  years  old.  He  had  been  killed 
in  the  trenches  before  Petersburg,  leaving  his  only 
son,  Guilford,  not  only  without  a  patrimony  and 
without  a  home,  but  also  without  any  family  connec- 
tion closer  than  some  distant  half -theoretical  cousin- 
ships.  The  young  man's  mother  had  gently  passed 
from  earth  so  long  ago  that  he  only  dimly  remembered 
the  sweet  nobility  of  her  character,  and  he  had  never 
had  either  brother  or  sister. 

He  was  thus  absolutely  alone  in  the  world,  and  he 
was  penniless,  too,  as  he  rode  down  the  mountain 
steeps.     But  the  impulse  of  work  had  come  to  him, 


NEW  BIRTH  OF  MANHOOD  33 

and  he  joyfully  welcomed  it  as  something  vastly  bet- 
ter and  worthier  of  his  strong  young  manhood  than 
any  brooding  over  misfortune  could  be,  or  any  leading 
of  the  old  aristocratic,  half -idle  planter  life,  if  that 
had  been  possible. 

In  connection  with  this  thought  came  another. 
He  had  recently  read  Owen  Meredith's  "Lucille," 
and  as  he  journeyed  he  recalled  the  case  there  de- 
scribed of  the  French  nobleman  who  for  a  time  wasted 
his  life  and  neglected  his  splendid  opportunities  in 
brooding  over  the  downfall  of  the  Bourbon  dynasty, 
and  in  an  obstinate  refusal  to  reconcile  himself  to  the 
new  order  of  things.  Duncan  remembered  how,  after 
a  while,  when  the  new  France  became  involved  in  the 
Crimean  war,  the  Frenchman  saw  a  clearer  light ;  how 
he  learned  to  feel  that,  under  one  regime  or  another, 
it  was  still  France  that  he  loved,  and  to  France  that 
his  best  service  was  due. 

"That,"  thought  Guilford  Duncan,  "was  a  new 
birth  of  patriotism.  Why  should  not  a  similar  new 
birth  come  to  those  of  us  who  have  fought  in  the 
Confederate  Army?  After  all,  the  restored  Union 
will  be  the  only  representative  left  of  those  principles 
for  which  we  have  so  manfully  battled  during  the 
last  four  years — the  principles  of  liberty  and  equal 
rights  and  local  self-government.  We  Confederates 
believe,  and  will  always  believe,  that  our  cause  was 
just  and  right,  that  it  represented  the  fundamentals 
of  that  American  system  which  our  forefathers  sealed 


34  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

and  cemented  with  their  blood.  But  our  effort  has 
failed.  The  Confederacy  is  eternally  dead.  The 
Union  survives.  What  choice  is  left  to  us  who  fol- 
lowed Lee,  except  to  reconcile  ourselves  with  our  new 
environment,  and  help  with  all  our  might  to  preserve 
and  perpetuate  within  the  Union  and  by  means  of  it, 
all  of  liberty  and  self-government,  and  human  rights, 
that  we  have  tried  to  maintain  by  the  establishment 
of  the  Confederacy?  We  must  either  join  heart  and 
soul  in  that  work,  or  we  must  idly  sulk,  living  in  the 
dead  past  and  leaving  it  to  our  adversaries  to  do, 
without  our  help,  the  great  good  that,  if  we  do  not 
sulk,  we  can  so  mightily  help  in  doing." 

He  paused  in  his  thinking  long  enough  to  let  his 
emotions  have  their  word  of  protest  against  a  recon- 
ciliation which  sentiment  resented  as  a  surrender  of 
principle. 

Then,  with  a  resolute  determination  that  was  final, 
he  ended  the  debate  in  his  own  mind  between  futilely 
reactionary  sentiment  and  hopeful,  constructive,  com- 
mon sense. 

"  I  for  one,  shall  live  in  the  future  and  not  in  the 
past.  I  shall  make  the  best  and  not  the  worst  of 
things  as  they  are.  I  have  put  the  war  and  all  its 
issues  completely  behind  me.  For  half  a  century  to 
come  the  men  on  either  side  will  organize  themselves, 
I  suppose,  into  societies  whose  purpose  will  be  to 
cherish  and  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  war,  and 
to  make  it  a  source  of  antagonism  and  bitterness. 


NEW  BIRTH  OF  MANHOOD  35 

Their  work  will  hinder  progress.  I  will  have  nothing 
to  do  with  it.  I  am  no  longer  a  Confederate  soldier. 
I  am  an  American  citizen.  I  shall  endeavor  to  do 
my  duty  as  such,  wholly  uninfluenced  and  unbiased 
by  what  has  gone  before. 

"  Surely  there  can  be  no  abandonment  of  truth  or 
justice  or  principle  in  that!  It  is  the  obvious  dic- 
tate of  common  sense  and  patriotism.  During  the 
war  I  freely  offered  my  life  to  our  cause.  The  cause 
is  dead,  but  I  live.  I  have  youth  and  strength.  I 
have  brains,  I  think,  and  I  have  education.  These  I 
shall  devote  to  such  work  as  I  can  find  to  do,  such 
help  as  I  can  render  in  that  upbuilding  of  my  native 
land  which  must  be  the  work  of  all  Americans  dur- 
ing the  next  decade  or  longer! 

"  Good-bye,  Confederacy !  Good-bye,  Army ! 
Good-bye,  Lost  Cause!  I  am  young.  I  must  'look 
forward  and  not  backward — up  and  not  down.' 
Henceforth  I  shall  live  and  breathe  and  act  for  the 
future,  not  for  the  past!  Repining  is  about  the 
most  senseless  and  profitless  occupation  that  the  hu- 
man mind  can  conceive." 

At  that  moment  the  young  man's  horse  encountered 
a  huge  boulder  that  had  rolled  down  from  the  moun- 
tain side,  completely  blockading  the  path.  With  the 
spirit  and  the  training  that  war  service  had  given 
him,  the  animal  stopped  not  nor  stayed.  He  ap- 
proached the  obstacle  with  a  leap  or  two,  and  then, 
with  mighty  effort,  vaulted  over  it. 


36  A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

"Good  for  you,  Bob!"  cried  the  young  man. 
"That's  the  way  to  meet  obstacles,  and  that's  the 
way  I  am  resolved  to  meet  them." 

But  the  poor  horse  did  not  respond.  He  hobbled 
on  three  legs  for  a  space.  His  master,  dismounting, 
found  that  he  had  torn  loose  a  tendon  of  one  leg  in 
the  leap. 

There  was  no  choice  but  to  drive  a  bullet  into  the 
poor  beast's  brain  by  way  of  putting  him  out  of  his 
agony. 

Thus  was  Guilford  Duncan  left  upon  the  mountain 
side,  more  desolate  and  helpless  than  before,  with  no 
possessions  in  all  the  world  except  a  pair  of  pistols,  a 
saddle,  a  bridle,  a  side  of  bacon,  a  peck  of  corn  meal, 
and  a  few  ounces  of  salt. 

The  Valley  lay  before  him  in  all  its  barrenness. 
Beyond  that  lay  hundreds  of  miles  of  Allegheny 
mountains  and  the  region  farther  on. 

All  this  expanse  he  must  traverse  on  foot  before 
arriving  at  that  great  river  highway,  by  means  of 
which  he  hoped  to  reach  his  destination,  a  thousand 
miles  and  more  farther  still  to  the  West.  But  the  new 
manhood  had  been  born  in  Guilford  Duncan's  soul, 
and  he  was  no  more  appalled  by  the  difficult  problem 
that  he  must  now  face  than  he  had  been  by  the  fire  of 
the  enemy  when  battle  was  on.  "Hard  work,"  he 
reflected,  "is  the  daily  duty  of  the  soldier  of  peace, 
just  as  hard  fighting  as  that  of  the  warrior." 

Strapping  his  saddle  and  bridle  on  his  back  he  took 


NEW  BIRTH  OF  MANHOOD  37 

his  bacon  and  his  salt  bag  in  one  hand  and  his  bag  of 
meal  in  the  other.  Thus  heavily  burdened  he  set  out 
on  foot  down  the  mountain.  • 

"At  any  rate  my  load  will  grow  lighter,"  he 
reflected,  "  every  time  I  eat,  and  I'll  sell  the  saddle 
and  bridle  at  the  first  opportunity.  I'll  make  the 
Ohio  River  in  spite  of  all." 


IV 

A  Private  in  the  Army  of  Work 

IT  was  a  truly  terrible  tramp  that  the  young  man 
had  before  him,  but  he  did  not  shrink.  So  long 
as  his  provisions  lasted  he  pushed  forward,  stop- 
ping only  in  the  woodlands  or  by  the  wayside  for  sleep 
and  for  eating.  By  the  time  that  his  provisions  were 
exhausted  he  had  passed  the  Valley  and  had  crossed  the 
crest  of  the  Alleghenies. 

He  was  now  in  a  country  that  had  not  been  wasted 
by  war,  a  country  in  which  men  of  every  class  seemed 
to  be  reasonably  prosperous  and  hard  at  work. 

There,  by  way  of  replenishing  his  commissariat,  he 
sold  the  saddle  he  was  carrying  on  his  back,  and  thus 
lightened  his  load. 

Fortunately  it  was  a  specially  good  saddle,  richly 
mounted  with  silver,  and  otherwise  decorated  to  please 
the  fancy  of  the  dandy  Federal  officer  from  whose 
dead  horse  Duncan  had  captured  it  after  its  owner 
had  been  left  stark  upon  the  field  in  the  Wilderness. 
It  brought  him  now  a  good  price  in  money,  and  to 
this  the  purchaser  generously  added  a  little  store  of 
provisions,  including,  for  immediate  use,  some  fresh 

38 


PRIVATE  IN  ARMY  OF  WORK  39 

meat — the  first  that  had  passed  Duncan's  lips  for 
more  months  past  than  he  could  count  upon  the  fingers 
of  one  hand. 

A  little  later  the  young  man  sold  his  pistols,  but  as 
he  pushed  onward  toward  the  Ohio  River  he  found 
that  both  traveling  and  living  in  a  prosperous  country 
were  far  more  expensive  than  traveling  and  living  in 
war-desolated  and  still  moneyless  Virginia. 

His  little  store  of  funds  leaked  out  of  his  pockets 
so  fast  that,  economize  as  he  might,  he  found  it  neces- 
sary to  ask  for  work  here  and  there  on  his  journey. 
It  was  spring  time,  and  the  farmers  were  glad  enough 
to  employ  him  for  a  day  or  two  each.  The  wages 
were  meagre  enough,  but  Duncan  accepted  them 
gladly,  the  more  so  because  the  farmers  in  every  case 
gave  him  board  besides.  Now  and  then  he  secured 
odd  jobs  as  an  assistant  to  mechanics.  In  one  case  he 
stoked  the  furnaces  of  a  coal  mine  for  a  week. 

But  he  did  not  remain  long  in  any  employment. 
As  soon  as  he  had  a  trifle  of  money  or  a  little  stock 
of  provisions  to  the  good,  he  moved  onward  toward 
the  river. 

His  one  dominating  and  ever-growing  purpose  was 
to  reach  Cairo.  What  fortune  might  await  him  there 
he  knew  not  at  all,  but  since  he  had  scratched  that 
address  on  the  butt  of  a  pistol,  the  desire  to  reach 
Cairo  had  daily  and  hourly  grown  upon  him  until  it 
was  now  almost  a  passion.  The  name  "  Cairo  "  in  his 
mind  had  become  a  synonym  for  "  Opportunity." 


40  A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  May  when  the  toilsome 
foot  journey  ended  at  Wheeling.  There  Duncan, 
still  wearing  his  tattered  uniform,  made  diligent  in- 
quiry as  to  steamboats  going  down  the  river.  He 
learned  that  one  of  the  great  coal-towing  steamers 
from  Pittsburg  was  expected  within  a  few  hours, 
pushing  acres  of  coal-laden  barges  before  her,  and 
he  was  encouraged  by  the  information,  volunteered  on 
every  hand,  that  the  work  of  "  firing  up "  under  the 
boilers  of  these  coal-towing  boats  was  so  severe  that  a 
goodly  number  of  the  stokers  always  abandoned  their 
employment  in  disgust  of  it,  and  deserted  the  boat  if 
she  made  a  landing  at  Wheeling,  as  this  approaching 
one  must  do  for  the  reason  that  a  number  of  coal-laden 
barges  had  been  left  there  for  her  to  take  in  tow. 

It  was  Guilford  Duncan's  hope  to  secure  a  place 
on  her  as  a  stoker  or  coal  passer,  to  take  the  place  of 
some  one  of  the  deserters.  This  might  enable  him, 
he  thought,  to  earn  a  little  money  on  the  way  down 
the  river,  instead  of  depleting  his  slenderly  stocked 
purse  by  paying  steamboat  fare. 

With  such  prospect  in  mind  he  ventured  to  go  into 
the  town  and  purchase  a  pair  of  boots  and  a  suit  of 
clothes  fit  for  wear  when  he  should  reach  Cairo.  His 
worn-out  uniform  would  answer  all  his  purposes 
while  serving  as  a  stoker. 

When  the  steamboat,  with  her  vast  fleet  of  barges, 
.made  a  landing,  Guilford  Duncan  was  the  first  man 
to  leap  aboard  in  search  of  work.     Unfortunately  for 


PRIVATE  IN  ARMY  OF  WORK  41 

him  there  were  few  or  no  deserters  from  in  front  of 
the  furnaces  on  this  trip.  He  could  not  secure  em- 
ployment as  a  stoker  earning  wages,  but  after  some 
persuasion  the  steamer's  captain  agreed  to  let  him 
"work  his  passage"  to  Cairo.  That  is  to  say,  he 
was  to  pay  no  fare,  receive  no  wages,  and  do  double 
work  in  return  for  his  passage  down  the  river  and  for 
the  coarse  and  unsavory  food  necessary  for  the  main- 
tenance of  his  strength. 

"All  this  is  a  valuable  part  of  my  education,"  he 
reflected.  "  I  am  learning  the  important  lesson  that 
in  work  as  in  warfare  the  man  counts  for  nothing — 
the  service  that  can  be  got  out  of  him  is  the  only 
thing  considered  by  those  in  command.  I  must  re- 
member all  that,  if  ever  I  am  in  a  position  to  make 
a  bargain  for  the  sale  of  my  services." 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  the  young  ex-Captain 
entered  upon  his  new  career  in  the  army  of  those 
that  work.  He  was  beginning  at  the  bottom  in  the 
new  service,  just  as  he  had  done  in  the  old.  "I  set 
out  as  a  private  in  the  army,"  he  said  to  himself.  "  It 
was  only  when  I  had  learned  enough  to  fit  me  for 
the  command  of  others  that  I  was  placed  in  authority. 
Very  well,  I'm  beginning  as  a  private  again.  I  must 
learn  all  that  I  can,  for  I  mean  to  command  in  that 
army,  too,  some  day." 


V 

The  Beginning  of  a  Career 

IT  was  a  little  after  sunset  on  Decoration  Day — 
May  30, 1865 — when  young  Duncan  went  ashore 
from  the  tow  boat  at  Cairo.  The  town  was  ablaze 
with  fireworks,  as  he  made  his  way  up  the  slope  of 
the  levee,  through  a  narrow  passage  way  that  ran 
between  two  mountainous  piles  of  cotton  bales.  At 
other  points  there  were  equally  great  piles  of  corn 
and  oats  in  sacks,  pork  in  barrels,  hams  and  bacon  in 
boxes,  and  finer  goods  of  every  kind  in  bales  and 
packing  cases.  For  Cairo  was  just  at  that  time  the 
busiest  entrepot  in  all  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

The  town  was  small,  but  its  business  was  larger 
than  that  of  many  great  cities.  The  little  city  lay  at 
the  point  where  the  Ohio  River  runs  into  the  Missis- 
sippi. From  up  and  down  the  Mississippi,  from  the 
Ohio,  from  the  Tennessee  and  the  Cumberland,  and 
even  from  far  up  the  Missouri,  great  fleets  of  steam- 
boats were  landing  at  Cairo  every  day  to  load  and 
unload  cargoes  representing  a  wealth  as  great  as 
that  of  the  Indies.  A  double-headed  railroad  from 
the  North,  carrying  the  produce  of  half  a  dozen 

42 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  A  CAREER       43 

States,  and  connecting  by  other  roads  with  all  the 
great  cities  of  the  land,  made  its  terminus  at  Cairo. 
Two  railroads  from  the  South— traversing  five  States 
—ended  their  lines  at  Columbus,  a  little  farther  down 
the  river,  and  were  connected  with  the  northern  lines 
by  steamboats  from  Cairo. 

Cairo  was  the  meeting  place  of  commerce  between 
the  North  and  the  South.  Out  of  the  upper  rivers 
came  light-draught  steamers.  Plying  the  river  below 
were  steamers  of  far  different  construction  by  reason 
of  the  easier  conditions  of  navigation  there.  At  Cairo 
every  steamboat — whether  from  North  or  South — 
unloaded  its  freight  for  reshipment  up  or  down  the 
river,  as  the  case  might  be,  upon  steamboats  of  a 
different  type,  or  by  rail.  And  all  the  freight 
brought  North  or  South  by  rail  must  also  be  trans- 
ferred at  Cairo,  either  to  river  steamers  or  to  railroad 
cars. 

The  South  was  still  thronged  with  Northern  troops, 
numbering  hundreds  of  thousands,  who  must  be  fed 
and  clothed,  and  otherwise  supplied,  and  so  the  gov- 
ernment's own  traffic  through  the  town  was  in  itself 
a  trade  of  vast  proportions.  But  that  was  the 
smallest  part  of  the  matter.  Now  that  the  war  was 
at  an  end,  the  South  was  setting  to  work  to  rebuild 
itself.  From  the  Cumberland  and  the  Tennessee 
rivers,  from  the  lower  Mississippi,  from  the  Arkansas, 
the  Yazoo,  the  Red  River,  the  White,  the  St.  Francis, 
and  all  the  rest  of  the  water-ways  of  the  South,  ener- 


44  A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

getic  men,  of  broken  fortune,  were  hurrying  to 
market  all  the  cotton  that  they  had  managed  to  grow 
and  to  save  during  the  war,  in  order  that  they  might 
get  money  with  which  to  buy  the  supplies  needed  for 
the  cultivation  of  new  crops. 

Pretty  nearly  all  this  cotton  came  to  Cairo,  either 
for  sale  to  eager  buyers  there,  or  for  shipment  to 
the  East  and  a  market. 

In  return  the  planters  and  the  southern  merchants 
through  whom  they  did  business  were  clamorous  for 
such  goods  as  they  needed.  Grain,  hay,  pork, 
bacon,  agricultural  implements,  seed  potatoes,  lime, 
plaster,  lumber,  and  everything  else  necessary  to 
the  rebuilding  of  southern  homes  and  industries, 
were  pouring  into  Cairo  and  out  again  by  train  loads 
and  steamboat  cargoes,  night  and  day. 

Even  that  was  not  all.  For  four  years  no  woman 
in  the  South  had  possessed  a  new  gown,  or  new  hand- 
kerchiefs, or  a  new  toothbrush,  or  a  new  set  of  window 
curtains,  or  a  new  comb,  or  new  linen  for  her  beds,  or 
new  shoes  of  other  than  plantation  make,  or  a  new  rib- 
bon or  bit  of  lace,  or  anything  else  new.  Now  that 
the  northern  market  was  open  for  the  sale  of  cotton 
the  country  merchants  of  the  South  were  besieged  for 
all  these  and  a  hundred  other  things,  and  their  orders 
for  goods  from  the  North  added  mightily  to  the 
freight  piles  on  the  levee  at  Cairo. 

As  Guilford  Duncan  emerged  from  the  alley-way 
between  the  cotton  bales  and  reached  the  street  at  top 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  A  CAREER       45 

of  the  levee,  a  still  burning  fragment  of  the  fireworks 
fell  upon  a  bale  of  which  the  bagging  was  badly 
torn,  exposing  the  lint  cotton  in  a  way  very  tempting 
to  fire.  With  the  instinct  of  the  soldier  he  instantly 
climbed  to  the  top  of  the  pile,  tore  away  the  burn- 
ing bunches  of  lint  cotton,  and  threw  them  to  the 
ground,  thus  preventing  further  harm. 

As  he  climbed  down  again  a  man  confronted  him. 

"  Are  you  a  watchman  ?  "  asked  the  man. 

"  No,  I'm  only  a  man  in  search  of  work." 

"Why  did  you  do  that,  then?"  queried  the 
stranger,  pointing  to  the  still  burning  cotton  scattered 
on  the  ground. 

"  On  general  principles,  I  suppose,"  answered  Dun- 
can. "There  would  have  been  a  terrible  fire  if  I 
hadn't." 

"What's  your  name?" 

"  Guilford  Duncan." 

"Want  work?" 

"Yes." 

"What  sort?" 

"Any  sort — for  good  wages."  That  last  phrase 
was  the  result  of  his  stoker  experience. 

"  Well,  do  you  want  to  watch  this  cotton  to-night 
and  see  that  no  harm  comes  to  it,  either  from  fire,  or — 
what's  worse — the  cotton  thieves  that  go  down  the 
alleys,  pulling  out  all  the  lint  they  can  from  the  torn 
bales?" 

"  Yes,  if  I  can  have  fair  wages." 


46  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"Will  three  dollars  for  the  night  be  fair  wages?" 

"Yes — ample.  How  far  does  your  freight  ex- 
tend up  and  down  the  levee  ?  " 

"It's  pretty  nearly  all  mine,  but  I  have  other 
watchmen  on  other  parts  of  it.     This  is  a  new  cargo. 

Your  beat  will  extend "  and  he  gave  the  young 

man  his  boundaries. 

"You'll  be  off  duty  at  sunrise.  Come  to  me  at 
seven  o'clock  for  your  pay.  I'm  Captain  Will  Hal- 
lam.  Anybody  in  Cairo  will  tell  you  where  my  office 
is.     Good-night." 

This  was  an  excellent  beginning,  Duncan  thought. 
Three  dollars  was  more  money  than  he  had  carried 
in  his  pocket  at  any  time  since  he  had  bought  his 
suit  of  clothes  at  Wheeling.  Better  still,  the  prompti- 
tude with  which  employment  had  thus  come  to  him  was 
encouraging,  although  the  employment  was  but  for  a 
night.  And  when  he  reflected  that  he  had  won  favor 
by  doing  what  seemed  to  him  an  act  of  ordinary  duty, 
he  was  disposed  to  regard  the  circumstance  as  another 
lesson  in  the  new  service  of  work. 

The  night  passed  without  event  of  consequence. 
There  were  two  or  three  little  fires  born  of  the  holiday 
celebration,  but  Guilford  Duncan  managed  to  sup- 
press them  without  difficulty.  Later  in  the  night  the 
swarm  of  cotton  thieves — mainly  boys  and  girls — 
invaded  the  levee,  with  bags  conveniently  slung  over 
their  shoulders.  As  there  were  practically  no  police- 
men in  the  town,  and  as  his  beat  was  a  large  one, 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  A  CAREER       47 

young  Duncan  for  a  time  had  difficulty  in  dealing 
with  these  marauders.  But  after  he  had  arrested 
half  a  dozen  of  them  only  to  find  that  there  were  no 
police  officers  to  whom  he  could  turn  them  over,  he 
adopted  a  new  plan.  He  secured  a  heavy  stick  from 
a  bale  of  hay,  and  with  that  he  clubbed  every  cotton 
thief  he  could  catch.  As  a  soldier  it  was  his  habit 
to  adapt  means  to  ends ;  so  he  hit  hard  at  heads,  and 
seized  upon  all  the  stolen  goods.  It  was  not  long  be- 
fore word  was  passed  among  the  marauders  that 
there  was  "  a  devil  of  a  fellow  "  in  charge  of  that  part 
of  the  levee,  and  for  the  rest  of  the  night  the  pilferers 
confined  their  operations  to  spaces  where  a  less  alert 
watchfulness  gave  them  better  and  safer  oppor- 
tunities. 

Thus  passed  Guilford  Duncan's  first  night  as  a 
common  soldier  in  the  great  army  of  industry. 

In  the  morning,  at  the  hour  appointed,  he 
presented  himself  to  Captain  Will  Hallam,  and  was 
taken  into  that  person's  private  office  for  an  inter- 
view. 


VI 

A  Captain  in  the  Army  of  Work 

CAPTAIN  WILL  HALLAM  was  a  man  of 
the  very  shrewdest  sense,  fairly — though  not 
liberally — educated,  whose  life,  from  boy- 
hood onward,  had  been  devoted  to  the  task  of  taking 
quick  advantage  of  every  opportunity  that  the  great 
river  traffic  of  the  fifties  had  offered  to  men  of  enter- 
prise and  sound  judgment. 

Beginning  as  a  barefoot  boy — about  1850,  or 
earlier,  he  never  mentioned  the  date — he  had  "  run  the 
river"  in  all  sorts  of  capacities  until,  when  the  war 
came,  temporarily  paralyzing  the  river  trade,  he  had 
a  comfortable  little  sum  of  money  to  the  good. 

Unable  to  foresee  what  the  course  and  outcome  of 
the  war  might  be,  he  determined,  as  a  measure  of 
prudence,  to  indulge  himself  and  his  little  hoard  in 
a  period  of  safe  waiting.  He  converted  all  his  pos- 
sessions into  gold  and  deposited  the  whole  of  it  in  a 
Canadian  bank,  where,  while  it  earned  no  interest,  it 
was  at  any  rate  perfectly  safe. 

Then  he  sought  and  secured  a  clerkship  in  the  com- 
missary department  of  the  army,  living  upon  the  scant 

49 


CAPTAIN  IN  ARMY  OF  WORK        49 

salary  that  the  clerkship  afforded,  and  meanwhile 
acquainting  himself  in  minute  detail  with  the  food 
resources  of  every  quarter  of  the  country,  the  means 
and  methods  of  transportation  and  handling,  and 
everything  else  that  could  in  any  wise  aid  him  in 
making  himself  a  master  in  commerce. 

Then  one  day  in  1863,  when  he  had  satisfied  him- 
self that  the  fortunes  of  war  were  definitely  turning 
and  that  in  the  end  the  Union  cause  was  destined  to 
triumph,  he  made  a  change. 

He  resigned  his  clerkship.  He  recalled  his  money 
from  Canada,  and  considerably  increased  at  least  its 
nominal  amount  by  converting  the  gold  into  greatly 
depreciated  greenbacks. 

With  this  capital  he  opened  a  commission  and  for- 
warding house  at  Cairo,  together  with  a  coal  yard, 
a  bank,  five  wharf  boats,  half  a  dozen  tugs,  an  insur- 
ance office,  a  flour  mill,  and  other  things.  He  sent 
for  his  brothers  to  act  as  his  clerks  and  presently  to 
become  his  partners. 

From  the  beginning  he  made  money  rapidly,  and 
from  the  beginning  he  was  eagerly  on  the  lookout  for 
opportunities,  which  in  that  time  of  rapid  change 
were  abundant.  He  quickly  secured  control  of  nearly 
all  the  commission  and  forwarding  business  that 
centered  at  Cairo.  By  underbidding  the  government 
itself  he  presently  had  contracts  for  all  the  vast  gov- 
ernment business  of  that  character. 

He  was  always  ready  to  take  up  a  collateral  enter- 


50  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

prise  that  promised  results.  When  the  Mississippi 
River  was  reopened  to  commerce  by  the  fall  of  Vicks- 
burg  and  Port  Hudson,  Captain  Will  Hallam  was 
the  first  to  see  and  seize  the  opportunity.  He  bought 
everything  he  could  lay  his  hands  on  in  the  way  of 
steamboats  and  barges,  and  sent  them  all  upon  trading 
voyages — each  under  charge  of  a  captain,  but  each 
directed  by  his  own  masterful  mind — up  and  down 
the  Mississippi,  and  up  and  down  the  Ohio,  and  up  and 
down  every  navigable  tributary  of  those  great  rivers. 

This  field  was  quickly  made  his  own,  so  far  as  he 
cared  to  occupy  it.  If  a  rival  attempted  a  com- 
petition that  might  hurt  his  enterprises,  Captain  Hal- 
lam quietly  and  quite  without  a  ripple  of  anger  in 
his  voice,  dictated  some  letters  to  his  secretary.  Then 
freight  rates  suddenly  fell  almost  to  the  vanishing 
point,  and  after  a  disastrous  trip  or  two,  his  adver- 
sary's steamboats  became  his  own  by  purchase  at  low 
prices,  and  freight  rates  went  up  again.  He  bore 
no  enmity  to  the  men  who  thus  antagonized  him  in 
business  and  whom  he  thus  conquered.  His  attitude 
toward  them  was  precisely  that  of  a  soldier  toward 
his  enemy.  So  long  as  they  antagonized  him  he 
fought  them  mercilessly ;  as  soon  as  they  fell  into  his 
hands  as  wounded  prisoners,  he  was  ready  and  eager 
to  do  what  he  could  for  them. 

Those  of  them  who  knew  the  river,  and  had  shown 
capacity  in  business,  were  made  steamboat  captains 
in  his  service,  or  steamboat  clerks,  or  wharf -boat  man- 


CAPTAIN  IN  ARMY  OF  WORK         51 

agers,    or    agents,    or    something    else — all   at   fair 
salaries. 

It  was  Captain  Will  Hallam's  practice  to  make 
partners  of  all  men  who  might  render  him  service  in 
that  capacity.  Thus  when  he  saw  how  great  a  busi- 
ness there  must  be  at  Cairo  in  supplying  Pittsburg 
steam  coal  to  the  government  fleets  on  the  Mississippi, 
and  to  the  thousands  of  other  steamboats  trafficking 
in  those  waters,  he  went  at  once  to  Pittsburg  and  two 
days  later  he  had  made  a  certain  Captain  Red  his 
partner  in  the  control  of  that  vastly  rich  trade. 

Captain  Red  was  the  largest  owner  of  the  Pitts- 
burg mines,  and  the  pioneer  in  the  business  of  carry- 
ing coal-laden  barges  in  acres  and  scores  of  acres 
down  the  river,  pushing  them  with  stern-wheel 
steamers  of  large  power,  but  still  of  a  power  insuffi- 
cient for  the  accomplishment  of  the  best  results. 

Captain  Red's  fleet  was  unable  to  control  the  trade. 
Captain  Hallam  pointed  out  to  him  the  desirability 
of  making  it  adequate  and  dominant.  Within  two 
days  the  two  had  formed  a  partnership  which  included 
a  number  of  New  York  bankers  and  investors  as  un- 
known and  silent  stockholders  in  the  enterprise,  and 
an  abundant  capital  was  provided.  An  order  was 
given  for  the  hurried  building  of  the  Ajax,  the  Hec- 
tor, the  Agamemnon,  the  Hercules,  and  half  a  dozen 
other  stern-wheel  steamers  of  power  so  great  that  they 
could  not  carry  the  coal  needed  for  their  own  fur- 
naces, but  must  tow  it  in  barges  alongside. 


52  A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

These  powerful  steamers  were  to  push  vast  fleets  of 
coal-laden  barges  down  the  river  all  the  way  from 
Pittsburg  on  the  east  to  St.  Louis  on  the  west,  and 
New  Orleans  on  the  south.  They  were  to  supply, 
through  Hallam's  agents,  every  town  along  the  river 
and  every  steamboat  that  trafficked  to  any  part  of  it. 
Hallam  was  master  of  it  all.  Cairo  was  to  be  the  cen- 
tral distributing  point,  and  if  anybody  along  the  river 
owned  a  coal  mine  in  Kentucky  or  Indiana,  or  else- 
where, he  was  quickly  made  to  understand  that  his 
best  means  of  marketing  his  product  at  a  profit  was 
to  sell  it  through  the  Hallam  yards  at  Cairo. 

In  the  meanwhile,  as  one  region  after  another  in 
the  South  was  conquered  by  the  Union  arms,  Captain 
Hallam,  whose  long  river  service  had  brought  him 
into  acquaintance  with  pretty  nearly  everybody 
worth  knowing  south  of  Cairo,  established  agents  of 
his  own  at  every  point  where  there  was  cotton  to  be 
bought  at  extravagant  prices,  payable  in  gold,  even 
while  the  war  was  going  on.  These  agents  bought  the 
cotton,  the  planters  agreeing  to  deliver  it  upon  the 
banks  of  the  rivers  and  leave  it  there  at  Hallam's  risk. 
Then  Captain  Hallam's  steamboats,  big  and  little, 
would  push  their  way  up  the  little  rivers,  take  the 
cotton  on  board,  and  carry  it  to  Cairo. 

At  Cairo,  while  the  war  lasted,  there  were  difficulties 
to  be  encountered.  Military  authority  was  supreme, 
and  just  when  the  influx  of  cotton  was  greatest,  mili- 
tary  authority   arbitrarily   decreed   that   no   cotton 


CAPTAIN   IN   ARMY  OF  WORK         53 

should  be  shipped  from  Cairo  to  the  North  or  East 
without  a  military  permit.  For  a  time  this  decree 
seriously  embarrassed  trade.  The  warehouses  in 
Cairo  were  choked  and  glutted  with  cotton.  New 
ones  were  built  only  to  be  choked  in  the  same  way. 
The  levee  was  piled  high  with  precious  bales.  Even 
vacant  lots  and  unoccupied  blocks  in  the  low-lying 
town  were  rented  and  made  storage  places  for  cotton 
bales,  piled  into  veritable  mountains  of  wealth.  For 
cotton  was  worth  forty  or  fifty  cents  a  pound,  and 
even  more,  at  that  time,  and  scores  of  mills  were  idle 
for  want  of  raw  material,  both  in  England  and  in 
New  England,  while  not  a  bale  could  be  shipped  be- 
cause the  military  authorities  would  issue  no  permits. 

Will  Hallam  one  day  set  himself  down  to  think  this 
thing  out.  "Why  do  the  military  authorities  deny 
us  shipping  permits?"  he  asked  himself.  "The 
eastern  buyers  want  the  cotton,  and  we  western 
holders  of  it  want  to  sell  it  to  them.  There  is  abso- 
lutely no  military  or  other  good  reason  why  the  owner 
of  cotton  in  one  northern  city  should  not  be  allowed 
to  ship  it  to  other  northern  cities  where  it  is  needed." 
Then  he  saw  a  light. 

"  The  military  people,  or  some  of  them,  want  a  slice 
of  the  profit.  That's  what's  the  matter.  I  don't  like 
to  pay  a  bribe,  but  in  a  military  time  like  this,  and 
while  Cairo  is  under  martial  law,  I  suppose  I  must 
submit  to  conditions  as  they  are.  I'm  no  theorist  or 
moralist.     I'm  fairly  honest,  I  think,  but  I'm  a  prac- 


54  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

tical  business  man.  Besides,  I've  a  dozen  partners 
interested  in  this  cotton,  and  I  owe  it  to  them  to  get  it 
off  to  a  market.  If  I  don't,  most  of  them  will  go  to 
the  bowwows,  financially.  The  military  authorities 
have  no  right  to  forbid  shipment  and  ruin  men  in  this 
way,  but  they  have  the  power  and  they  are  exercising 
it.  What's  that  the  Bible  says  about  ploughing  with 
the  other  fellow's  heifer,  and  making  friends  with  the 
Mammon  of  unrighteousness?  I  always  play  the 
game  according  to  the  rules,  no  matter  whether  I 
like  the  rules  or  not.  I'll  play  this  hand  in  that 
way." 

Then  turning  to  his  secretary,  he  said: 

"  Call  the  main  office  cashier  by  telegraph  and  tell 
him  to  come  to  me  at  once,  here  at  the  house." 

There  were  no  telephones  in  that  day,  but  Captain 
Will  Hallam  was  accustomed  to  say  that,  living,  as  he 
did,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  he  made  free  use  of 
nineteenth  century  conveniences  in  his  business.  He 
had  laced  the  little  city  with  telegraph  wires,  con- 
necting his  house  not  only  with  his  office,  and  many 
warehouses,  but  with  the  houses  of  all  the  chief  men 
in  his  employ,  even  to  the  head  drayman.  And  he 
exacted  of  every  one  of  his  employees  a  reasonable 
facility  in  the  use  of  the  Morse  telegraph. 

Captain  Hallam  had  many  rules  for  the  governance 
of  his  own  conduct.     Among  them  were  these : 

"Never  be  a  fool — look  at  the  practical  side  of 
things. 


CAPTAIN   IN   ARMY  OF  WORK         55 

"Never  let  anything  run  away  with  you — keep 
cool. 

"  Never  be  in  a  hurry — make  the  other  fellows  do 
the  hustling. 

"  Never  let  the  men  you  work  with  know  what  you 
are  doing — they  might  talk,  or  they  might  do  a  little 
business  on  their  own  account. 

"  Never  be  satisfied  with  anything  as  it  is — there 
is  always  some  way  of  bettering  it. 

"  Never  send  good  money  after  bad — it  doesn't 
pay. 

"  Never  waste  energy  in  regretting  a  loss — there's 
a  better  use  for  energy. 

"  Never  hesitate  to  pay  for  your  education  as  you 
get  it — use  the  telegraph  freely,  and  keep  in  close 
communication  with  the  men  who  are  likely  to  know 
what  you  want  to  know. 

"When  you  want  a  man  to  keep  still,  make  it 
worth  his  while — but  don't  say  anything  to  him  about 
it.     That  opens  the  way  to  blackmail. 

"  Never  take  a  drink — it  unbalances  the  judgment. 

"Never  get  angry — that's  worse  than  taking  a 
dozen  drinks. 

"  Never  do  anything  till  you  are  ready  to  do  it  all 
over  and  clear  through." 

In  obedience  to  the  spirit  of  these  rules,  Captain 
Will  Hallam,  as  soon  as  he  had  sent  off  his  telegraphic 
messages,  went  out  into  his  garden  and  hoed  a  while. 
Then  he  called  John,  his  English  gardener,  and  gave 


56  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

him  some  minute  instructions  respecting  the  care  of 
certain  plants.  John  resented  the  impertinence  of 
course,  but  he  obeyed  the  instructions,  nevertheless. 
It  was  the  fixed  habit  of  men  who  worked  for  Captain 
Will  Hallam  to  obey  his  commands. 

Presently  the  cashier  presented  himself,  with  check 
book  in  hand. 

"  Draw  a  check  for  five  thousand  dollars,"  com- 
manded Captain  Hallam,  "payable  'to  the  King  of 
Holland  or  Bearer.  Mind,  I  say  '  bearer,'  not '  order.' 
Then  draw  another  check  for  one  hundred  dollars, 
payable  to  yourself." 

Not  another  word  was  said.  No  explanation  of  the 
gift  to  the  cashier  was  offered  or  asked.  The  cashier 
understood.  He  drew  the  checks  and  his  employer 
signed  them.  The  smaller  one  he  handed  to  his  sub- 
ordinate. The  vastly  larger  one  he  thrust  into  his 
vest  pocket,  as  he  moved  around  a  corner  of  the  piazza 
to  set  his  little  girls  swinging  in  a  new  contrivance 
which  he  had  purchased  for  their  use. 

Presently  he  returned  to  his  secretary  and  said: 

"  Telegraph  Mr.  Kingsbury  to  make  out  an  appli- 
cation in  proper  form  for  a  military  permit  to  ship 
five  thousand  bales  of  cotton  to  New  York.  Tell  him 
to  have  it  ready  for  me  at  two  o'clock  at  the  main 
office." 

Two  hours  later  Captain  Hallam  found  the  appli- 
cation ready  for  him  on  his  office  desk.  After  look- 
ing it  over  he  signed  and  carefully  folded  it  after  the 


CAPTAIN  IN   ARMY  OF  WORK         57 

fashion  required  for  military  documents,  but  as  he 
did  so  he  slipped  into  it  the  check  for  five  thousand 
dollars,  payable  to  the  "  King  of  Holland  or  Bearer." 

No  mention  of  the  check  was  made  in  the  document. 
If  the  proceeding  should  be  resented  at  headquarters, 
the  enclosure  could  be  excused  on  the  plea  of  accident. 

Then  the  man  of  business  bade  his  secretary  envelop 
the  package  and  send  it  by  messenger  to  military 
headquarters. 

It  came  back  promptly  with  this  endorsement  on  it : 

"Application  denied.  The  proposed  shipment  is 
larger  than  this  office  regards  as  proper  under  existmg 
circumstances" 

The  last  three  words  were  heavily  and  suggestively 
underscored.  Captain  Hallam  thought  he  under- 
stood. He  was  in  the  habit  of  understanding  quickly. 
He  called  the  cashier,  handed  him  the  check,  first  tear- 
ing it  into  four  pieces,  and  bade  him  cancel  the  stub 
and  draw  a  new  check  for  ten  thousand  dollars,  pay- 
able as  before,  to  "  the  King  of  Holland  or  Bearer." 

Then  he  endorsed  the  application  with  the  sentence : 

"As  conditions  have  somewhat  changed  since  this 
application  was  rejected,  I  venture  to  ask  a  recon- 
sideration." 

Half  an  hour  later  Captain  Hallam  was  duly  and 
officially  notified  that  his  application  for  permission 
to  ship  five  thousand  bales  of  cotton  was  granted. 

The  check — without  endorsement — was  cashed  next 
day — the  bank  teller  would  never  say  by  whom.     But 


58  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

in  the  meanwhile  Captain  Hallam  had  said  to  his 
secretary : 

"Telegraph  the  general  freight  agent  at  Chicago 
for  freight  cars,  as  fast  as  he  can  let  me  have  them. 
Say  I  have  five  thousand  bales  of  cotton  awaiting 
shipment,  with  more  to  come  as  fast  as  I  can  get  per- 
mits." 

Then  Captain  Hallam  mounted  his  horse  and  rode 
away  for  a  "constitutional." 

All  this  occurred  a  year  or  two  before  the  time  of 
Guilford  Duncan's  arrival  in  Cairo ;  but  it  was  pecu- 
liarly characteristic  of  Captain  Hallam's  methods  and 
the  story  of  it  is  illustrative  of  his  ideas. 


VII 

The  "  Sizing  Up  "  of  Guilford  Duncan 

CAPTAIN  WILL  HALLAM  was  quick  to 
make  up  his  mind  with  regard  to  a  man.  He 
was  exceedingly  accurate  in  his  human  judg- 
ments, too,  and  his  confidence  in  them  had  been 
strengthened  by  experience  in  successfully  acting 
upon  them.  As  he  phrased  it,  he  "  knew  how  to  size 
a  man  up,"  and,  as  the  employer  of  multitudes  of 
men  in  all  parts  of  the  country  and  in  all  sorts  of 
capacities,  he  had  daily  need  of  the  skill  he  had 
acquired  in  that  art.  It  was  as  much  a  part  of  his 
equipment  for  the  conduct  of  his  vast  and  varied 
enterprises  as  was  his  money  capital  itself. 

When  young  Duncan  presented  himself  in  the 
private  office  after  his  night's  vigil  as  a  watchman, 
Captain  Hallam  asked  him  to  sit.  That  was  a  recog- 
nition of  his  social  status  as  something  better  than  his 
employment  of  the  night  before  might  have  suggested. 
Ordinarily  a  man  employed  as  a  levee  watchman  would 
not  have  been  told  to  come  to  the  private  office  at  all. 
Nor  would  such  a  man  have  seen  anybody  higher  than 
a  junior  clerk  in  collecting  his  wages. 

59 


60  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

But  Captain  Hallam  had  been  impressed  by  this 
newcomer,  and  he  wanted  to  talk  with  him. 

He  broke  at  once  into  a  catechism. 

"  Why  did  you  do  that  little  fire-extinguishing  act 
last  night  ?  " 

He  asked  the  question  precisely  as  he  might  have 
done  if  he  had  resented  the  saving  of  his  wealth  of 
cotton. 

"  Oh,  it  was  simple  enough.  The  fire  meant  dam- 
age, and  I  was  there.     So,  of  course,  I  put  it  out." 

"But  why?  The  cotton  wasn't  yours,  and  you 
hadn't  been  hired  to  watch  it." 

"No,  of  course  not.     But  when  a  gentle I 

mean  when  any  decent  man  sees  property  afire 
he  doesn't  ask  whose  it  is  before  putting  out  the 
blaze." 

"  You're  a  Virginian,  I  should  say,  from  your  voice 
— late  of  the  rebel  army.     What's  your  rank?" 

"None  now.  I've  put  the  war  completely  behind 
me.     I'm  beginning  life  anew." 

"  Good !  I  wish  everybody,  north  and  south,  would 
do  the  same.  But  fools  won't,  and  men  are  mostly 
fools,  you  know.     When  did  you  get  to  Cairo?" 

"About  Rye  minutes  before  you  saw  me  putting 
out  the  fire.  I  came  down  the  river  on  the  big  tow 
boat." 

"  Where's  your  baggage?  " 

"On  my  back.  I  have  no  other  clothes.  I'll  buy 
some  when  I  earn  some  money." 


"SIZING  UP"  OF  DUNCAN  61 

"  Where  have  you  been  since  the  surrender?  " 
"  Making  my  way  West." 
"How?" 

"  On  foot  to  Wheeling.     Then  on  the  tow  boat." 
"  What  fare  did  they  make  you  pay?  " 
"None.     I  worked  my  way  as  a  stoker — fireman 
they  call  it  out  here." 

"  No  wages?     Just  passage  and  grub?  " 
"  That  was  all." 

"  What  have  you  got  on  your  wheel  house?  " 
"  I  fear  I  don't  understand." 

"Oh,  that's  river  slang.  You  know  every  side- 
wheel  steamer  has  a  statement  of  her  destination 
painted  on  her  wheel  house.  I  meant  to  ask  what  are 
your  plans  ?  " 

"  To  find  work  and  do  it." 
"What  kind  of  work?" 
"  Any  kind  that's  honest." 
"You  are  educated,  I  suppose?" 
"  Yes,  in  a  way.     I'm  an  A.  M.  and  a  graduate  in 
law." 

"  Know  anything  about  business  ?  " 
"  No,  but  I  shall  learn." 
"  If  you  can,  you  mean?  " 

"  Oh,  I  can.  A  capable  man  can  learn  anything 
if  he  really  wants  to." 

"I  don't  know  about  that.     But  I'll  gamble  on 
the  proposition  that  you  can." 
"  Thank  you," 


62  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

"No  thanks  are  needed.  I  wasn't  complimenting. 
I  was  just  expressing  an  opinion." 

Scribbling  a  memorandum  on  a  scrap  of  paper, 
Captain  Hallam  handed  it  to  Duncan,  saying: 

"Give  that  to  the  cashier  as  you  go  out,  and  get 
your  wages.  Then  you'd  better  get  your  breakfast. 
I  recommend  you,  while  you're  poor,  to  eat  at  the 
little  booths  along  the  levee,  where  they  sell  very  good 
sandwiches  and  coffee  cheap.  After  breakfast,  if  you 
choose  to  come  back  here  I'll  try  to  find  something  for 
you  to  do.  Oh,  I  forgot.  You  were  up  all  night, 
so  you'll  want  to  sleep." 

There  was  an  interrogative  note  in  the  last  sen- 
tence. Captain  Hallam  was  "  sizing  up "  his  man, 
and  he  closely  scrutinized  Duncan's  face  as  the  an- 
swer came. 

"Oh,  I'm  used  to  night  duty.  I'm  ready  for  a 
day's  work  if  you  can  give  me  one.  As  for  break- 
fast, I've  had  it." 

"  Then  you  had  money  ?  " 

"A  very  little;  but  I  didn't  spend  any  of  it.  I 
sawed  and  split  a  load  of  wood  for  the  keeper  of  a 
booth,  and  he  gave  me  some  bread  and  ham  and 
coffee  for  my  work." 

"Oh,  that's  the  way  you  managed  it.  Very  well. 
Come  back  here  in  two  hours  anyhow." 

After  the  young  man  had  passed  out,  Captain 
Hallam  said  to  one  of  his  partner  brothers: 

"That  fellow  is  a  good  sort.     He  has  sand  in  his 


"SIZING  UP"  OF  DUNCAN  63 

gizzard.  When  he  comes  back  set  him  at  work  at 
something  or  other— several  things  in  succession  in 
fact — and  find  out  what  he  can  do." 

Such  was  Guilford  Duncan's  mustering  into  the 
new  service  of  work. 


VIII 

On  Duty 

DURING  the  next  four  or  five  days  Guil- 
ford Duncan  was  kept  busy  with  various 
small  employments,  some  of  them  out  of 
doors  and  some  of  them  in  the  office.  During  this 
time  Captain  Hallam  did  not  again  engage  him  in  con- 
versation, but  Duncan  knew  that  the  man  of  business 
was  closely  observing  his  work.  He  was  not  slow  to 
discover  that  he  was  giving  satisfaction.  He  saw 
that  with  each  day  the  work  assigned  him  was  of  a 
kind  that  required  a  higher  intelligence  than  that  of 
the  day  before. 

Every  evening  the  cashier  paid  him  his  day's  wages, 
thus  reminding  him  that  he  was  not  a  salaried  em- 
ployee of  the  house,  but  a  man  working  for  wages 
from  day  to  day. 

Out  of  his  first  wages  he  had  purchased  a  change  of 
very  cheap  underwear,  a  towel,  and  a  cake  of  soap. 
Every  morning  about  daylight  he  went  to  a  secluded 
spot  on  the  levee,  for  a  scrub  and  a  swim.  Then  he 
washed  out  his  towel  and  placed  it  with  his  other  small 
belongings,  in  a  storage  place  he  had  discovered  in  a 
great  lumber  pile. 

64 


ON  DUTY  65 

One  morning  when  he  entered  the  office  Captain 
Hallam  gave  him  several  business  letters  to  answer 
from  memoranda  scribbled  upon  them  by  clerks  or 
others.  He  gave  him  also  a  memorandum  in  his  own 
handwriting,  saying: 

"Cut  that  down  if  you  can  and  make  a  telegram 
of  it.  I'll  be  back  in  half  an  hour  or  so.  Have  it 
ready  for  me." 

The  case  was  this:  A  huge  steamboat  lay  at  the 
levee,  loaded  almost  to  the  water's  edge  with  grain 
which  Captain  Hallam  was  more  than  anxious  to  hurry 
to  New  Orleans  to  meet  a  sudden  temporary  and  very 
marked  advance  in  that  market.  That  morning  the 
boat  had  been  "tied  up" — as  the  phrase  went — that 
is  to  say,  she  had  been  legally  attached  for  debt,  at 
the  suit  of  a  firm  in  St.  Louis.  Until  the  attachment 
should  be  removed  the  boat  must  lie  at  Cairo,  in  charge 
of  a  sheriff's  officer.  Captain  Hallam  wished  to  secure 
her  immediate  release,  and  to  that  end  he  purposed 
sending  the  telegram. 

When  he  returned  to  the  office  Duncan  handed  him 
for  inspection  and  signature  the  letters  he  had 
written. 

"  Here  is  the  telegram,  also,"  he  said,  "  but,  if  you 
will  pardon  the  impertinence,  I  think  you  had  better 
not  send  it — at  least  in  the  form  you  have  given  it." 

"  What's  the  matter  ?  "  quickly  snapped  Hallam. 

"  It  binds  you  to  more  than  I  think  you  intend." 

"Goon!    Explain!" 


66  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"Why,  I  cannot  help  seeing  that  if  you  send  this 
dispatch  you  will  make  yourself  legally  responsible, 
not  only  for  the  claim  for  which  the  boat  is  now 
attached,  but  also  for  every  claim  against  her  that 
may  exist  anywhere.  There  may  be  none  such,  or 
there  may  be  many.  In  any  case  I  do  not  think  you 
intend  to  assume  them  all." 

"  Go  on  1  The  boat  must  be  got  away.  What  do 
you  advise?" 

"  That  you  go  on  her  bond  for  this  claim — which 
seems  to  me  so  clearly  illegal  that  I  think  you  can 
never  be  held  upon  the  bond — and " 

"Remind  me,  when  this  is  over,  that  you  are  to 
come  to  my  house  to-night  for  consultation  on  that 
point.     Now  go  on." 

"  Well,  by  going  on  her  bond  for  this  claim,  instead 
of  asking  the  creditors  to  release  the  boat  on  your 
promise  as  made  in  the  telegram,  you  can  secure  her 
immediate  release,  making  yourself  liable,  at  worst, 
for  no  more  than  the  six  hundred  dollars  claimed." 

"  But  if  I  do  that,  what  is  to  prevent  another  tie-up 
at  Memphis  and  another  at  Vicksburg  and  others 
wherever  the  boat  may  happen  to  land.  She's  in  debt 
up  to  the  top  of  her  smokestacks,  all  along  the  river." 

"As  you  own  the  cargo,  and  she  can't  carry 
another  ton,  why  should  you  let  her  stop  at  all  ?  I  sup- 
pose the  captain  would  do  as  you  desire  in  that  matter. 
You  might  request  him  to  run  through  without  any 
landings." 


ON  DUTY  67 

"  Request  be  hanged.  I'll  tell  him  what  to  do  and 
he'll  do  it.  He  knows  where  cargoes  come  from.  Can 
you  get  the  papers  ready?" 

"  I  can,  sir." 

"  All  right.  Do  it  at  once."  Then  turning  to  a 
shipping  clerk  he  sent  for  the  captain  of  the  steamer, 
to  whom  he  said : 

"  Get  up  steam  at  once.  You  are  to  leave  in  less 
than  an  hour.     How  much  coal  have  you? " 

The  captain  told  him. 

"  Take  two  light  barges  of  coal  in  tow,  one  on  each 
side,  and  draw  on  them  for  fuel.  When  they're 
empty  cast  them  loose  with  two  men  on  each  to  land 
them.  You  can  pick  them  up  on  your  return  trip. 
You  are  to  steam  to  New  Orleans  without  a  landing 
anywhere.     You  understand?" 

The  captain  understood.  By  this  time  the  papers 
were  ready  and  after  half  an  hour  spent  in  legal 
formalities  the  released  steamboat  cast  loose  from  the 
wharf  and  backed  out  into  the  river. 

Then  Captain  Hallam  turned  to  Guilford  Duncan 
and  said: 

"  I've  an  idea  that  you'll  do.  If  you  like  I'll  put 
you  at  regular  work  at  a  monthly  salary,  and  we'll 
see  how  we  get  on  together." 

"I  should  like  that." 

"  Very  well.     Now,  where  are  you  boarding?  " 

"  Nowhere.  I  get  what  I  want  to  eat  at  the  booths 
down  along  the  levee." 


6S  A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

"  But  where  do  you  sleep?" 

"  Among  the  big  lumber  piles  down  there  on  Fourth 
street." 

Captain  Hallam  looked  at  the  young  man  for  a 
moment  with  something  like  admiration  in  his  eyes. 
Presently  he  said : 

"You'll  do.  You've  got  grit  and  you'll  'make 
the  riffle,'  sure.  But  you  must  live  more  regularly, 
now  that  you  are  to  have  a  salary.  I  know  what  it 
means  to  live  as  you've  been  doing.  I  used  to  do  it 
myself.  I  could  tell  to  a  cent  the  nutritive  value  of  a 
pegged  pie  or  a  sewed  one,  and  at  a  single  glance  I 
could  guess  the  probable  proportions  of  the  dog  and 
cat  in  a  sausage.  That  sort  of  thing's  all  right 
for  a  little  while,  but  not  for  long,  and  as  for 
the  sleeping  among  lumber  piles,  it's  risky.  I  used 
to  sleep  in  an  empty  sugar  hogshead  by  preference, 
but  sleeping  out  of  doors  may  give  you  rheumatism." 

"  I've  been  doing  it  for  four  years,"  answered  Dun- 
can, smiling,  "  and  I  still  have  the  use  of  my  limbs." 

"Yes,  of  course.  I  didn't  think  of  that.  But 
you  must  live  better  now.  There's  a  well-furnished 
room  above  the  office.  It  was  my  brother's  quarters 
before  he  got  married,  and  it  is  very  comfortable. 
You  can  take  it  for  your  own.  Give  Dutch  John,  the 
scrub  boy,  half  a  dollar  a  week  to  take  care  of  it  for 
you  and  that's  all  the  rent  you  need  pay.  As  for 
your  meals,  most  young  men  in  Cairo  feed  their  faces 
at  the  hotel.    But  that's  expensive  and  what  the  pro- 


ON  DUTY  69 

prietor  calls  his  '  kuzene '  is  distinctly  bad.  There's  a 
lady,  however, — Mrs.  Deming, — who  furnishes  very 
good  '  square  meals,'  I  hear,  over  in  Walnut  street. 
You'd  better  try  there,  I  think.  She's  what  you  would 
call  a  gentlewoman,  but  she  needs  all  the  money  you'll 
pay  her." 

Duncan  wondered  a  little  what  a  'square  meal' 
might  be,  but  he  was  getting  somewhat  used  to  the 
prevalence  in  the  West  of  those  figurative  forms  of 
expression  which  we  call  slang.  So  he  took  it  fox 
granted  that  "  square  meals "  were  for  some  reason 
preferable  to  meals  of  any  other  geometrical  form, 
and  answered  simply  that  he  would  look  up  Mrs. 
Deming's  house  after  business  hours  should  be  over. 

"  Remember,"  said  Captain  Hallam  as  he  passed  out 
of  the  office,  "  you  are  to  see  me  at  my  house  to-night. 
Better  come  to  supper — say  at  seven — and  after  sup- 
per we'll  talk  over  that  law  point  you  mentioned,  and 
other  things." 

Duncan  wondered  a  little  that  Captain  Hallam 
should  give  him  so  intimate  an  invitation  when  he 
knew  so  little  of  him.  Everybody  else  in  the  office 
understood.  Captain  Will  was  planning  to  "  size  up 
his  man"  still  further,  in  an  evening's  conversation. 


IX 

One  Night's  Work 

AS  the  weeks  and  months  went  on  the  results 
of  Gilford  Duncan's  work  completely  justi- 
^fied  the  confident  assertion  he  had  made  to 
Captain  Hallam  that  a  capable  man  can  learn  any- 
thing if  he  really  wants  to. 

He  rapidly  familiarized  himself  with  the  technicali- 
ties, as  well  as  with  the  methods  and  broad  principles 
of  business.  He  sat  up  till  midnight  for  many  nights 
in  succession,  in  order  to  learn  from  the  head  book- 
keeper the  rather  scant  mysteries  of  bookkeeping.  By 
observing  the  gaugers  who  measured  coal  barges  to 
determine  their  contents,  he  quickly  acquired  skill  in 
doing  that. 

It  was  so  with  everything.  He  was  determined  to 
master  every  art  and  mystery  that  in  anywise  per- 
tained to  business,  whether  the  skill  in  question  was 
or  was  not  one  that  he  was  ever  likely  to  need  or  to 
practice. 

His  diligence,  his  conscientiousness  in  work,  his 
readiness  of  resource,  his  alert  intelligence,  and  his 
sturdy  integrity  daily  commended  him  more  and  more 

70 


ONE  NIGHT'S  WORK  71 

to  the  head  of  the  firm,  and  not  many  months  had 
passed  before  everyone  in  the  office  tacitly  recognized 
the  young  Virginian  as  the  confidential  adviser  and 
assistant  of  Captain  Hallam  himself,  though  no  formal 
appointment  of  that  kind  had  been  made. 

But  no  advance  of  salary  came  to  the  young  man 
as  a  result.  It  was  one  of  Captain  Hallam's  rules 
never  to  pay  a  man  more  for  his  services  than  he 
must,  and  never  to  advance  a  man's  salary  until  the 
advance  was  asked  for. 

Captain  Hallam  was  in  no  fibre  of  his  being  a  miser, 
but  he  acted  always  upon  those  cold-blooded  pru- 
dential principles  that  had  brought  him  wealth.  It 
was  not  money  that  this  great  captain  of  commerce 
worshiped,  but  success.  Success  was  the  one  god  of 
his  idolatry.  Outside  of  his  business  he  was  liberal 
in  the  extreme.  Even  in  his  business  operations  he 
never  hesitated  at  lavish  expenditure  where  such  ex- 
penditure promised  good  results.  But  he  regarded 
all  unnecessary  spending  as  waste,  of  the  kind  that 
imperils  success. 

In  his  cynical  moments,  indeed,  he  sometimes  said 
that  "if  you  have  a  valuable  man  in  your  employ, 
you  must  keep  him  poor;  otherwise  you'll  lose  him." 
But  in  so  saying  he  perhaps  did  himself  an  injustice. 
He  was  apt  to  feign  a  heartless  selfishness  that  he 
did  not  feel. 

Little  by  little  Guilford  Duncan  had  learned  all  this 
as  he  had  learned  business  methods.     He  had  at  first 


72  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

modestly  proposed  to  himself  nothing  more  in  the 
way  of  achievement  than  to  make  himself  a  valuable 
subordinate — a  private,  or  at  most  a  corporal  or  a 
sergeant — in  the  ranks  of  the  great  army  of  work. 
But  before  many  months  had  passed  his  modesty  was 
compelled  to  yield  somewhat  to  an  increasingly  clear 
understanding  of  conditions  and  possibilities.  Some- 
what to  his  own  surprise  he  began  to  suspect  himself 
of  possessing  capacities  superior  to  those  of  the  men 
about  him,  and  even  superior  to  those  of  many 
men  who  had  risen  to  high  place  in  commerce  and 
finance. 

As  Captain  Hallam  came  more  and  more  to  rely 
upon  the  sagacity  and  character  of  this  his  most 
trusted  man,  he  more  and  more  brought  young  Dun- 
can into  those  confidential  conferences  with  the  lead- 
ing men  of  affairs,  which  were  frequently  necessary  in 
the  planning  and  execution  of  important  enterprises, 
or  in  the  meeting  of  difficulties  and  obstacles.  In  that 
way  Duncan  was  brought  into  personal  contact  with 
the  recognized  masters — big  and  little — with  rail- 
road presidents,  financiers,  bankers,  capitalists,  and 
other  men  whose  positions  were  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree  commanding. 

At  first  he  modestly  held  himself  as  nothing  more 
than  the  tool  and  servitor  of  these  great  men.  But 
presently  he  began  to  suspect  that  they  were  not  very 
great  men  after  all — to  see  that  it  was  usually  he 
himself  who  devised  and  suggested  the  enterprises  that 


ONE  NIGHT'S  WORK  73 

these  men  undertook,  and  he  who  saved  them  from  mis- 
takes in  the  execution  of  those  enterprises. 

Guilford  Duncan  had  never  in  his  life  kept  a  diary. 
He  regarded  that  practice  as  a  useless  puerility  and 
usually  an  indulgence  in  morbid  self-communing  and 
unwholesome  self -consciousness.  But  it  was  his  prac- 
tice, sometimes,  late  at  night,  to  set  down  upon  paper 
such  thoughts  as  had  interested  him  during  the  day, 
for  the  sole  sake  of  formulating  them  in  his  own  mind. 
Often  he  would  in  this  way  discuss  with  himself  ques- 
tions concerning  which  he  had  not  yet  matured  his 
opinion. 

He  found  the  practice  conducive  to  clear  thinking 
and  sound  judgment.  It  served  for  him  the  same  pur- 
pose that  the  writing  of  intimate  letters  might  have 
done  if  he  had  had  any  intimates  to  whom  to  write 
letters. 

"I've  been  in  conference  this  day,"  he  wrote  one 
night,  "  with  half  a  dozen  nabobs — not  great  nabobs, 

but  second  rate  ones.     Mr.  M was  the  biggest 

one.  He's  a  railroad  president,  and  he  always  talks 
loftily  of  his  '  system '  when  he  means  the  single  rail- 
road he  presides  over  and  its  little  branches.     Then 

there  was  D .    He's  a  General  Freight  Agent,  and 

he  never  forgets  the  fact  or  lets  anybody  else  forget 
it.  That's  because  he  was  a  small  shipping  clerk 
until  less  than  two  years  ago.  I  don't  think  much 
of  his  capacity.  Yes,  I  do.  He  knows  how  to  man- 
age a  big  traffic  fairly  well,  and  he  has  had  nous 


74  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

enough  to  climb  out  of  his  small  clerkship  into  a  posi- 
tion of  responsibility.  What  I  mean  is  that  he  has 
little  education,  no  culture,  and  no  intelligence  out- 
side of  business.  But  I  begin  to  see  that  except  in 
its  very  highest  places,  business  does  not  require 
anything  better  than  good  ordinary  ability  inspired 
by  inordinate  selfishness.  Perhaps  that  is  the  reason 
that  the  novelists  so  rarely — I  may  say  never — take 
a  man  of  business  for  the  hero  of  a  romantic  story. 

"All  this  has  put  a  new  thought  into  my  mind. 
Why  should  not  I,  Guilford  Duncan,  make  myself  a 
leader,  a  captain,  or  even  a  commanding  general  of 
affairs.  I  am  far  better  educated  than  any  of  these 
men.  They  hold  that  education  is  a  hindrance  rather 
than  a  help  in  business,  but  in  that  they  are  mightily 
wrong,  as  I  intend  presently  to  show  them.  Other 
things  being  equal,  a  man  of  trained  mind  should 
certainly  achieve  better  results,  even  in  business, 
than  a  man  of  untrained  mind.  A  man  of  trained 
mind,  if  he  has  natural  capacity  and  energy,  can  do 
anything  that  he  chooses  to  do,  I  must  never  forget 
that. 

"  But  the  man  who  would  do  things  of  any  conse- 
quence in  business  ways  must  have  money.  The  bank 
account  is  his  tool  chest.  * 

"I  suggested  some  combinations  to-night  to  those 
nabobs,  and  they  are  going  to  carry  them  out.  They 
would  never  have  thought  of  the  combinations  but  for 
my  suggestion.     But  they  can  and  will  carry  them 


ONE  NIGHT'S  WORK  75 

out,  with  great  credit  and  profit  to  themselves,  be- 
cause they  have  command  of  money.  J  could  not 
even  think  of  conducting  such  affairs,  simply  because 
I  have  no  command  of  money. 

"Very  well,  then.  I  shall  proceed  to  get  money, 
just  as  I  should  study  to  acquire  skill  in  a  profes- 
sion, or  just  as  I  should  read  up  the  law  pertaining 
to  a  matter  with  which  I  must  deal. 

"  I  shall  not  learn  to  love  money.  That  would  de- 
grade my  soul.  I  shall  regard  money  always  as  a 
means — a  mere  tool  with  which  to  do  such  work  as  I 
can  in  this  great  undeveloped  country. 

"  That  also  is  something  to  be  remembered.  The  era 
of  development  is  just  beginning.  These  men  are 
nation  builders,  though  they  don't  know  it,  or  intend 
it,  or  care  anything  about  that  aspect  of  their  activi- 
ties. Their  motives  are  the  sordid  impulses  of  greed 
and  selfish  ambition  alone. 

"  At  least  that  is  true  of  all  of  them  except  Captain 
Hallam.  He  is  a  man  apart.  His  attitude  is  a  pecu- 
liar one.  He  does  not  care  for  wealth  in  itself  and 
yet  he  scrambles  for  it  as  greedily  and  as  hungrily  as 
the  rest  of  them.  Sometimes  I  think  he  regards  the 
whole  thing  as  a  game  which  he  enjoys  playing  with 
superior  skill,  just  as  one  might  with  whist  or  chess. 
He  likes  to  win,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  winnings,  but 
for  the  sake  of  the  winning. 

"I  must  go  to  bed  now.  To-morrow  I'll  begin 
thinking  out  plans  for  getting  money.     One  thing 


76  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

is  sure.  No  man  can  get  much  money  by  working  for 
any  other  man.  The  man  who  gets  rich  is  he  who  hires 
other  men  to  work  for  him  for  less  than  their  work  is 
worth.  But  it  is  only  by  working  for  another  man  that 
one  can  get  the  first  little  capital — the  first  rude  but 
handy  tool  with  which  to  achieve  success.  I'll  go  on 
working  as  a  hired  man  till  I  get  a  little  hoard  to- 
gether.    After  that — well,  we  shall  see." 

Duncan  was  greatly  admired  but  little  understood 
by  his  fellows  in  the  service  of  the  Hallam  firm,,  or  by 
the  similar  people  who  thronged  the  town.  His  fel- 
lows, in  and  out  of  the  office,  were  commonplace  young 
men,  all  looking  to  the  main  chance  alone  and  pursuing 
it  with  only  such  honesty  of  conduct  as  business  pru- 
dence required.  They  felt  no  further  interest  in  their 
work  than  such  as  was  necessary  to  enable  them  to 
retain  their  places  and  their  salaries. 

Therefore  they  did  not  understand  Guilford  Dun- 
can. Neither  could  they.  They  regarded  with  amaze- 
ment and  almost  with  incredulity  his  manifestations 
of  sensitive  honor  and  of  unselfish  loyalty  to  duty. 
They  thought  of  him  as  a  sort  of  freak,  or  what  we 
should  nowadays  call  a  crank. 

Of  course  they  could  not  fail  to  recognize  his  abil- 
ity, but  they  thought  him  a  good  deal  of  a  fool, 
nevertheless,  for  not  taking  selfish  advantage  of  the 
opportunities  that  so  frequently  came  to  him.  They 
could  not  understand  why  he  should  go  out  of  his  way, 
as  he  very  often  did,  to  render  services  to  the  firm 


ONE  NIGHT'S  WORK  77 

which  were  in  no  way  required  or  expected  of  him. 
Especially  they  could  not  understand  why,  when  he 
had  rendered  such  services  in  a  way  to  attract  Captain 
Hallam's  pleased  attention  he  didn't  "strike  for 
something  better,"  as  they  phrased  their  thought. 

In  one  especial  case,  their  amazement  over  his  neg- 
lect of  an  opportunity  bred  something  like  contempt 
of  him  in  their  minds.  It  was  the  practice  of  the 
Hallams  to  keep  a  fleet  of  heavily  laden  coal  barges 
in  a  bend  of  the  river  above  the  town,  bringing  them 
down  one  by  one  to  the  coalyards  at  "The  Point"  be- 
low the  city  as  they  were  needed.  One  day  in  the  early 
winter,  a  coal  gauger  being  off  duty,  Duncan  volun- 
teered to  go  up  to  the  bend  in  his  stead,  and  measure 
the  coal  in  a  great  fleet  of  barges  that  had  just 
arrived. 

He  found  the  barges  unsafely  bestowed,  and  sug- 
gested to  the  captain  of  the  Hallam  yard  tug  boat 
that  he  should  tow  them  into  a  securer  anchorage. 
As  night  was  at  hand  the  captain  of  the  tug  refused, 
saying  that  he  would  attend  to  the  matter  on  the 
morrow. 

That  night  the  first  storm  of  the  winter  broke  upon 
the  river,  lashing  it  to  fury,  and  threatening  with 
destruction  every  species  of  craft  that  might  venture 
away  from  moorings. 

About  midnight  one  of  Duncan's  bedroom  windows 
was  blown  in,  scattering  glass  and  fragments  of 
sash  over  his  bed,  and  startling  him  out  of  sleep. 


78  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

Instantly  the  thought  of  the  exposed  coal  barges 
flashed  into  his  mind.  He  knew  that  they  were  utterly 
unfit  to  ride  out  a  storm,  being  nothing  more  than 
great  oblong  boxes,  loaded  nearly  to  their  gunwales 
with  coal.  He  remembered,  too,  the  exposed  position 
in  which  they  had  been  left  for  the  night. 

Hastily  drawing  on  his  clothing  he  hurried  to  the 
landing  place  of  the  yard  tug.  He  found  no  prepa- 
rations making  there  for  any  attempt  to  save  the 
barges  and  their  enormously  rich  cargoes,  or  even  to 
rescue  the  helpless  men  who  had  been  left  on  board  of 
them.  The  engineer  of  the  tug,  who  always  slept  on 
board,  was  there,  and  so  were  the  two  deck  hands  and 
the  fireman,  but  the  fires  were  banked,  and  the  cap- 
tain had  not  responded  to  the  duty  call  of  the 
tempest. 

As  the  immediate  representative  and  chief  lieuten- 
ant of  Captain  Hallam,  Guilford  Duncan  was  recog- 
nized as  a  man  somewhat  entitled  to  give  orders. 
On  this  occasion  he  promptly  assumed  so  much 
more  of  authority  as  did  not  strictly  belong  to 
him. 

He  instantly  ordered  the  engineer  to  get  up  steam. 
He  directed  one  of  the  two  deck  hands  to  go  hurriedly 
to  the  tug  captain's  bedroom  and  order  him  to  come 
to  the  tug  at  once. 

As  he  rattled  off  his  orders  for  putting  cable  coils 
aboard,  placing  all  fenders  in  position,  battening  down 
the  hatches,  and  doing  all  else  that  might   render 


ONE  NIGHT'S  WORK  79 

the  tug  fitter  for  the  perilous  service  that  he  intended 
to  exact  of  her,  his  voice  took  on  the  old  ring  of 
battle,  and  his  commands  came  quick,  sharp,  and 
penetrating  from  his  set  lips,  like  those  of  an  officer 
placing  guns  in  position  for  a  desperate  fight. 

The  captain,  who  was  also  sole  pilot  of  the  tug,  so 
far  obeyed  the  order  sent  to  him  as  to  come  to  the  tug 
landing.  But  when  he  looked  out  upon  the  storm- 
lashed  river,  he  positively  refused  to  obey  Duncan's 
order  to  go  to  the  wheel. 

"I'll  never  take  the  tug  out  in  such  a  storm  as 
this,"  he  said  doggedly. 

"  But  think,  man !  There  are  twenty  men  or  more 
up  there  on  those  coal  barges,  whose  lives  simply  must 
be  saved.  And  there  is  a  hundred  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  coal  there  that  may  go  to  the  bottom  any 
minute." 

"  I  can't  help  that.  I  tell  you  the  tug  couldn't  live 
a  minute  in  such  a  storm." 

"  In  other  words,"  answered  Duncan  with  measure- 
less contempt  in  his  tone,  "you  are  a  miserable  cow- 
ard, a  white-livered  wretch,  whose  life  wouldn't  be 
worth  saving  if  it  were  in  danger.  Go  back  to  your 
bed!  Go  to  sleep!  or  go  to  hell,  damn  you,  for  the 
cowardly  whelp  that  you  are ! " 

Then  turning  to  the  engineer  and  the  two  deck 
hands,  he  asked  hoarsely : 

"Will  you  men  stand  to  your  duty  while  I  go  to 
the  wheel?  " 


80  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

"  We're  with  you  while  she  floats,  cap'n,"  said  the 
engineer.     "  I  always  did  hate  a  coward." 

"  Hare  you  got  steam  enough?  " 

"  Yes,  a  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  pressure  to  the 
square  inch,  and  she'll  need  it  all." 

"  All  right.  Cast  her  off,"  commanded  Duncan  as 
he  stepped  to  his  post  in  the  pilot  house. 

He  knew,  of  course,  that  he  was  taking  terrible 
risks.  Having  no  pilot's  license  he  had  no  legal 
right  to  be  at  the  wheel.  Should  disaster  overtake 
the  tug  he  would  be  personally  liable  for  the  insur- 
ance forfeited  by  his  act  in  taking  her  out  in  con- 
travention of  the  judgment  of  her  captain  and  pilot. 
Worse  still,  should  any  life  be  lost  in  the  adventure, 
Guilford  Duncan  would  be  held  to  answer  for  man- 
slaughter. 

Well-educated  lawyer  that  he  was,  he  knew  all  these 
facts.  He  perfectly  understood  the  fearful  responsi- 
bilities he  was  taking  upon  himself.  Yet  he  faltered 
not  nor  failed.  There  was  no  moment's  hesitation  in 
his  mind.  There  were  lives  in  peril  up  there  in  the 
bend,  and  a  vast  property  exposed  to  destruction. 
There  was  a  chance  that  by  taking  these  risks  he 
might  save  both.  All  that  is  best  in  the  soul-impulse 
of  the  soldier  was  his  inspiration.  He  would  do  his 
duty — though  that  duty  was  in  no  wise  his  except  as 
he  had  made  it  his — and  let  consequences  look  out  for 
themselves. 

This  young  fellow  had  often  sniffed  the  breath  of 


ONE  NIGHT'S  WORK  81 

battle  in  his  nostrils.  He  had  many  times  done  and 
dared  things  that  only  a  brave  and  self -regardless 
man  could  have  done  and  dared.  To-night  the  old 
enthusiasm  of  war  came  back  to  his  soul,  but  with 
a  difference.  He  had  often  fought  to  destroy.  He 
was  facing  danger  now  with  saving  and  the  rescue 
of  imperiled  human  lives  for  his  purpose. 

As  the  tug  quitted  her  moorings  and  began  her 
voyage  up  the  river,  Duncan  caught  a  glimpse  of 
Captain  Hallam's  form  hurrying  toward  the  landing. 
Almost  immediately  the  tug  began  to  plunge  in 
perilous  fashion,  thrusting  her  head  under  the  waves, 
and  shipping  water  enough  to  dampen  the  fires  and 
diminish  steam  pressure  in  a  way  that  threatened 
failure  to  the  enterprise. 

Failure  in  the  work  of  rescue  was  the  only  thing 
that  Guilford  Duncan  feared. 

He  had  already  had  the  hatches  securely  battened 
down  so  that  no  water  could  find  its  way  into  the 
hold.  But  when  he  saw  that  water  was  rapidly  rush- 
ing with  every  sea  into  the  furnace  room,  threaten- 
ing with  extinction  the  fires  that  could  alone  give 
power  to  the  vessel,  he  called  one  of  the  deck  hands 
to  the  wheel,  and  instructing  him  as  to  the  course  to 
be  laid,  himself  hurriedly  inspected  ship.  With  the 
aid  of  the  other  deck  hand  he  quickly  removed  from 
bow  to  stern  everything  that  had  weight.  Then  he 
and  the  deck  hand  and  the  fireman,  with  some  aid  from 
the  engineer,  proceeded  to  shovel  the  coal  supply  from 


82  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

its  bunkers  forward  of  the  fire  room  into  the  captain's 
cabin  aft  of  the  furnaces. 

This  done,  the  tug  no  longer  ran  her  prow  into 
and  under  the  tremendous  seas,  but  rode  over  them 
instead,  shipping  no  further  water. 

Then  Duncan  returned  to  the  pilot  house,  and  a 
few  minutes  later  reached  the  imperiled  fleet  of  coal 
barges. 

There  havoc  had  already  begun.  Three  barges 
had  gone  down  and  two  men  had  been  drowned.  The 
rest  of  the  barges  were  riding  so  uneasily  that  their 
seams  were  opening,  and  the  water  that  must  presently 
swamp  them  was  finding  its  insidious  way  through 
their  sides  and  bottoms. 

When  the  tug  appeared,  all  the  men  on  hoard  the 
coal  barges  clamored  piteously  to  be  taken  off  at 
once. 

"  Stand  to  your  duty,  men ! "  shouted  Duncan. 
"Don't  be  cowards.  Do  your  part  of  the  work 
and  we'll  save  all  of  you  and  all  the  coal.  Only  obey 
orders  promptly  and  I'll  be  responsible  for  the  rest. 
Go  to  the  pumps  and  answer  every  command 
promptly." 

He  then  ordered  flaming  torches  kindled  on  every 
barge,  and  in  the  light  thus  created  he  was  able  to 
tow  one  after  another  of  the  coal  boats  into  that  har- 
bor of  safety  in  which  the  tug  captain  should  have 
moored  them  during  the  day  before,  the  men  mean- 
while pumping  to  keep  the  water  down. 


ONE  NIGHT'S  WORK  83 

Then  with  his  clothing  drenched  and  frozen  stiff 
upon  him,  he  steered  the  tug  back  to  her  landing 
place,  through  the  now  receding  storm. 

Kennedy,  the  tug  captain,  was  there,  waiting.  As 
Duncan  came  ashore  Kennedy  said  menacingly : 

"  If  I  get  my  discharge  for  this  I'll  prosecute  you 
for  piloting  without  a  license." 

The  ice-encased  and  half -frozen  young  man  made 
no  reply.     He  simply  hurried  ashore. 

As  he  mounted  to  the  top  of  the  levee,  though  it 
was  only  a  little  after  daylight,  Duncan  encountered 
Captain  Will  Hallam,  who  stood  there  waiting  for 
him. 

"Go  to  the  hotel,"  said  the  employer.  "I've 
ordered  a  piping  hot  bath  for  you  there,  and  a  blazing 
wood  fire.  There's  nothing  like  a  wood  fire  after  a 
chilling  such  as  you've  had.  When  you  get  good 
and  warm,  go  to  bed.  When  you  wake  naturally, 
telegraph  to  the  office  for  me,  and  we'll  breakfast  to- 
gether. I've  ordered  the  breakfast — the  hotel  keeper 
thinks  it  will  bankrupt  him  or  make  his  fortune  to 
furnish  it,  but  that  doesn't  matter.  Get  warm  and 
get  some  sleep.     Sleep  as  long  as  you  can." 

"  I  don't  think  I  care  for  sleep,"  answered  the  half- 
frozen  and  wholly  exhausted  young  man.  "But 
would  you  mind  sending  Dutch  John  to  me  at  the 
hotel?  I'd  like  to  have  him  rub  me  down  with  some 
Turkish  towels  after  my  hot  bath.  Tell  him  I  have  a 
dollar  for  him  if  he  rubs  me  well." 


84  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

"That  fellow  is  certainly  a  new  brand,"  muttered 
Captain  Hallam  to  himself  as  he  walked  away  up  the 
levee.  "  But  he's  %  triple  X '  for  endurance  and  mod- 
esty and  courage,  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  What  a 
fighter  he  must  have  been!  I'd  like  to  see  him  in  a 
hot  battle,  if  I  were  bullet  proof  myself.  I'll  bet 
bonds  to  brickbats  he  got  all  the  fight  there  was  in 
them  out  of  his  men.  But  why  doesn't  he  look  out  for 
his  own  interests,  I  wonder?  I'm  still  paying  him  the 
salary  on  which  he  began.  Any  other  man  in  my 
employ  who  could  have  done  one-tenth  of  what  he  has 
done,  would  have  made  me  pay  three  times  as  much 
by  this  time.  But  then,  that's  the  reason.  It's  just 
because  he  is  that  sort  that  he  hasn't  bothered  about 
an  increase  of  salary.  By  George !  I'll  give  it  to  him 
without  the  asking !  I  never  did  such  a  thing  before 
in  all  my  life.  It  will  startle  the  office  people  out  of 
their  wits,  but  they  need  startling,  and  as  for  their 
wits — well " 

He  didn't  complete  the  sentence;  for  just  then  he 
met  Dutch  John. 

"Go  down  to  the  hotel  at  once,"  he  commanded. 
"  Go  on  the  run.  Go  to  Mr.  Duncan's  room  and 
rub  all  the  skin  off  his  body.  He'll  give  you  a  dollar 
for  a  good  rub.  I'll  give  you  iixe  dollars  more  if  he 
is  satisfied." 

"  I  must  milk  your  cows  first,"  answered  the  stolid 
German  boy,  whose  occupations  were  varied  and  some- 
times conflicting. 


ONE  NIGHT'S  WORK  85 

"  Oh,  let  the  cows  go  hang !  Or  let  the  half-dozen 
accomplished  young  ladies  whom  my  wife  employs  to 
keep  her  establishment  in  order,  milk  them !  You  go 
to  the  hotel  and  rub  that  man  into  condition.  Damn 
the  cows!" 

Obviously,  young  Duncan's  performance  of  that 
stormy  night  had  awakened  Captain  Hallam  to  en- 
thusiasm. He  was  not  much  given  to  enthusiasms, 
but  this  one  was  thoroughly  genuine. 

"Yes,  by  George!"  he  said  between  his  clenched 
teeth,  "  I'll  multiply  that  fellow's  salary  by  three  and 
let  the  office  people  wonder!  Perhaps  it  will  give 
them  a  hint.  No,  it  won't.  Or  at  least  they  won't 
take  the  hint.  But  anyhow,  I'll  do  it,  if  only  for 
what  the  newspapers  call  *  dramatic  effect.' " 

Entering  the  office,  where,  at  this  hour,  the  clerks 
were  assembling,  Captain  Hallam  said,  in  his  figura- 
tive fashion: 

"That  fellow  Duncan  has  got  more  cogs  in  his 
gearing  wheels  than  all  the  rest  of  you  put  together. 
You  call  him  a  freak ;  you  call  him  eccentric,  because 
he  isn't  like  you.  Now  let  me  tell  you  that  that's  a 
sort  of  eccentricity  that  you'll  do  well  to  cultivate. 
The  less  you  are  like  yourselves  and  the  more  you're 
like  him,  the  better  it  will  be  for  you.  He  thinks. 
You  don't.  He  does  all  he  can.  You  do  as  little  as 
you  can.  He  shall  have  his  reward.  He  shall  have  a 
salary  three  times  that  of  the  best  man  in  the  office. 
And  more  than  that,  he  shall  have  the  right  to  com- 


86  A   CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

mand  here.  Whatever  orders  he  gives  shall  be  obeyed, 
just  as  if  they  were  my  own.  He  is  your  model  to 
imitate,  so  far  as  you  can.  But  most  of  you  can't. 
Most  of  you  care  only  to  get  through  a  day's  work 
for  a  day's  wages.  You  have  no  loyalty,  no  concern 
for  the  business.  Not  a  man  jack  of  you  thought 
of  the  storm  last  night  as  a  circumstance  that  im- 
periled human  life  and  my  property.  He  did.  You 
lay  still  in  your  beds  listening  to  the  rain  on  the  roof, 
and  sinking  into  sweet  slumbers  to  the  tune  of  its 
pattering.  He  was  up  and  out,  and  risking  his 
life  to  meet  the  emergency.  Can't  you  see  that  that 
makes  all  the  difference  between  a  successful  man  and 
an  unsuccessful  one?  Can't  you  understand  that — 
oh,  pshaw !     What's  the  use  of  talking  to  stumps  ?  " 

That  was  the  very  longest  speech  that  Captain  Will 
Hallam  had  ever  made  in  his  life.  It  was  not  without 
effect.  It  did  not  inspire  any  of  the  clerks  to  fresh 
endeavor,  or  to  a  more  conscientious  service.  But  it 
made  every  one  of  them  an  implacable  enemy  of 
Guilford  Duncan,  and  inflamed  every  one  of  them 
with  an  insatiable  desire  to  injure  him  whenever 
occasion  might  offer. 

Thus,  by  his  night's  heroic  endeavor,  Guilford 
Duncan  had  succeeded  not  only  in  making  an  enemy 
of  Captain  Kennedy,  but  in  making  himself  anathema 
maranatha  in  the  Hallam  office  besides. 

He  was  taking  a  bath,  however,  at  that  time,  and 
not  thinking  of  these  matters. 


X 

Alliance,  Offensive  and  Defensive 

HOW  did  you  come  to  do  that? " 
That  was  the  first  question  Captain  Hallam 
fired  at  Duncan  after  the  hotel  waiter  had 
quitted  the  room  to  bring  a  further  supply  of  coffee 
and  broiled  bacon. 

"Why,  it's  simple  enough,"  answered  Duncan, 
with  a  touch  of  embarrassment  in  his  tone.  "You 
see,  I  was  up  there  yesterday  gauging  coal.  I  knew 
the  barges  were  anchored  in  a  dangerous  position, 
and  so  when  the  storm  broke,  there  wasn't  anything 
else  to  do  but  get  into  my  clothes  and  send  the  tug 
up  there  to  the  rescue." 

"  But  it  wasn't  your  business  to  look  after  the  coal 
up  in  the  bend?" 

Duncan  slowly  drank  three  sips  of  coffee  before 
answering  that  eagerly  questioning  remark.  Then 
he  leant  forward  and  said,  slowly  and  with  em- 
phasis : 

"I  conceive  it  to  be  my  business,  and  my  duty  as 
well  as  my  pleasure,  to  do  all  that  I  can  to  promote 
the  interest  of  the  man  who  employs  me." 

87 


88  A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

"  But  that  was  a  risky  thing  to  do.  You  took  your 
life  in  your  hands,  you  know?" 

"  I  suppose  I  did,  but  that's  a  small  matter.  There 
were  twenty  other  lives  in  danger.  And  what  is  one 
man's  life  when  there  is  a  duty  to  be  done?  We've 
all  got  to  die  sometime." 

Captain  Hallam  did  not  utter  the  thought  that  was 
in  him.     That  thought  was : 

"Well,  of  all  the  queer  men  I  have  ever  had  to 
deal  with,  you  are  certainly  the  queerest!  Still,  I 
think  I  understand  you,  and  that's  queerer  still." 

Instead  of  speaking  he  sipped  his  coffee.  Then  he 
rose  and  "tickled  the  denunciator."  That  was  his 
phrase  for  ringing  for  a  servant. 

"Put  some  more  wood  on  the  fire,"  he  commanded 
when  the  servant  came. 

"  I've  put  it  all  on,  a'ready,"  answered  the  man. 

"Well,  bring  some  more." 

"  It'll  be  extry  charge,  sir." 

"  Never  mind  that,"  said  Captain  Hallam.  "  Do  as 
you  are  told,  and  when  the  thing  is  over  I'll  issue  a 
loan,  raise  some  money,  and  pay  the  bill.  You  know 
who  I  am,  don't  you?" 

"No,  sir.     You  see,  I've  just  come  to  Cairo." 

"Very  well,  then.  Go  to  the  office  of  the  hotel 
and  tell  the  people  there  that  Captain  Will  Hallam 
is  ordering  more  wood  than  you  think  he  can  pay 
for.  They'll  tell  you  what  to  do.  In  the  meantime, 
here's  a  quarter  for  you." 


ALLIANCE  89 

This  by-play  with  the  serving  man  relieved  Captain 
Hallam  of  a  sense  of  embarrassment  which  he  felt  in 
approaching  the  next  thing  he  had  in  mind. 

"What  do  you  want,  Duncan,  for  last  night's 
work?" 

Duncan  looked  at  his  companion  for  half  a  minute 
before  answering.     Then  he  said: 

"  I  want  that  tug  captain  of  yours  discharged." 

"Why?" 

"  Because  he's  a  coward  and  an  utterly  unfit  man. 
Human  life  may  depend  upon  his  courage  at  any 
moment,  and  he  has  no  courage." 

"  Is  that  all  you  want?  " 

"Yes.     That's  all." 

"Why  don't  you  demand  an  increase  in  your 
salary?  Anybody  else  would.  But,  perhaps  you 
don't  care  for  a  bigger  salary?  You're  a  queer  sort, 
you  know." 

"  Oh,  yes ;  I  care  very  much  for  an  increase,"  an- 
swered Duncan. 

"  Then  why  didn't  you  seize  upon  the  opportunity 
to  ask  for  it?" 

"Must  I  tell  you,  frankly?" 

"I  wish  you  would.  It  might  help  me  to  under- 
stand you." 

"  Well,  it  is  simple  enough.  You  gave  me  employ- 
ment when  I  was  desperately  in  need  of  it.  I  should 
be  an  ingrate  if  I  did  not  consider  your  interests  in  all 
that  I  do.     I  think  I  ought  to  have  a  larger  salary 


90  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

than  you  are  now  paying  me.  I  think  I  earn  it,  and 
it  has  been  my  purpose  to  ask  for  it  when  the  proper 
time  should  come." 

"Then  why  haven't  you  been  in  a  hurry  to  ask 
for  it  now?     There  couldn't  be  a  better  time." 

"  Pardon  me,  but  I  cannot  agree  with  you.  It  so 
happens  that  just  at  this  moment  I  have  several  very 
important  matters  of  yours  in  my  charge.  You  have 
entrusted  them  to  me,  and  they  have  come  so  ex- 
clusively under  my  control  that  nobody  else — not  even 
you — could  conduct  them  to  a  successful  issue  so  well 
as  I  can.  Under  such  circumstances,  of  course,  I 
cannot  make  any  personal  demand  upon  you,  without 
indecency.  To  do  so  would  be  to  take  advantage  of 
your  necessities.  It  would  amount  to  a  threat  that, 
if  you  refused  my  demands,  I  would  abandon  these 
enterprises  and  leave  you  to  get  out  of  all  their  diffi- 
culties as  best  you  could.  Don't  you  see,  Captain 
Hallam,  that  under  such  circumstances,  I  simply 
could  not  make  a  demand  upon  you  for  more  salary, 
or  for  anything  else  of  personal  advantage  to  my- 
self?" 

"  No,  I  don't  see  it  at  all.  And  yet,  somehow,  I 
seem  to  understand  you.  If  I  were  in  your  place  I'd 
regard  these  circumstances  as  trump  cards,  and  I'd 
lead  them  for  all  they  are  worth.  So  would  any  other 
man  in  the  Mississippi  Valley — or  anywhere  else,  I 
think." 

"That  may  perhaps  be  so,  and  I  suppose  I  am 


ALLIANCE  91 

■  queer,'  as  you  say.     But  to  me  it  would  seem  a  de- 
spicable thing  to  take  advantage  of  the  fact  that  you 
need  me  in  these  affairs  of  yours.     You  have  bidden 
me  be  frank.     I  will  be  so.     When  I  came  to  Cairo  I 
sought  work  of  the  hard,  physical  kind,  at  the  small 
wages  that  such  work  commands.     You  quickly  gave 
me  better  work  and  larger  pay  than  I  had  expected 
to  earn  for  months  to  come.     Little  by  little  you  have 
advanced  me  in  your  regard  until  now  I  seem  to  enjoy 
your  confidence.     When  you  first  brought  me  into 
contact  with  the  big  men  of  affairs — more  or  less 
big — I  was  oppressed  with  an  exaggerated  sense  of 
their  greatness.     Presently,  I  discovered  that  while 
you  are  always  deferential  toward  them,  you  are  dis- 
tinctly their  superior  in  intellect  and  in  your  grasp  of 
affairs.     You  allow  them  to  think  that  they  are  your 
masters,  while  in  fact  you  never  fail  to  have  your  way, 
and  to  compel  them  and  the  many  millions  of  other 
people's  money  whose  use  they  control,  to  your  own 
purposes." 

At  this  point  Hallam  uttered  a  low  chuckle. 

"A  little  later  I  discovered  another  fact,"  con- 
tinued Duncan.  "It  slowly  dawned  upon  my  mind 
that  you  put  me  forward  in  your  conferences  with 
them,  because  you  valued  my  suggestions  and  my 
initiative  more  than  you  did  theirs.  Thinking  of 
that  I  came  at  last  to  the  conclusion  that  I  must,  in 
fact,  be  superior  to  these  men  in  those  qualities  that 
originate,    execute,    achieve.     Otherwise,    with    your 


92  A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

genius  for  affairs,  you  would  have  suppressed  me  and 
listened  to  them." 

Again  Hallam  chuckled. 

"  Then  another  thought  occurred  to  me.  The  only 
reason  why  they  can  execute  plans  that  I  conceive, 
while  I  cannot,  is  that  they  have  considerable  money 
of  their  own  and  command  of  much  greater  sums  not 
their  own,  while  I  have  neither.  They  have  the 
tools  and  the  materials.  I  have  neither.  The  clum- 
siest mechanic,  who  has  tools  and  materials  to 
work  with,  can  do  things  that  the  most  skillful  me- 
chanic who  has  neither  tools  nor  materials,  cannot 
do. 

"I  have  decided,  therefore,  to  possess  myself  of 
tools  and  materials,  in  order  that  I  may  make  my- 
self a  master  workman,  and  do  my  part  in  the 
great  nation-building  enterprises  of  the  time  and 
country." 

"Would  you  mind  explaining  what  you  mean  by 
that  ?  "  interrupted  Hallam,  whose  eagerness  in  listen- 
ing had  caused  him  to  let  his  second  cup  of  coffee 
grow  cold. 

Duncan  arose,  without  answering,  crossed  the  room, 
pressed  the  button,  and  then  said: 

"It  is  a  subject  that  I  very  much  wish  to  talk 
with  you  about.  But  your  coffee  is  cold.  When  you 
get  a  fresh  cup,  I'll  explain." 

He  said  no  more  till  the  waiter  came,  served  the 
coffee  and  left  the  room.     Then  he  began: 


ALLIANCE  93 

"People  who  live  all  their  lives  in  the  mountains 
have  no  adequate  conception  or  perception  of  the 
grandeur  of  the  scenery  that  surrounds  them.  We 
never  any  of  us  fully  understand  the  things  against 
which  we  c  rub  our  eyes,'  as  a  witty  Frenchman  has  put 
it.  It  is  for  that  reason,  perhaps,  that  what  is  going 
on  here  in  the  West  does  not  impress  you  in  the  same 
way  in  which  it  impresses  me.  You  men  of  affairs  are 
just  now  beginning  to  do  the  very  greatest  work  of  na- 
tion building  that  has  ever  been  done  since  time  began. 
But  you  are  so  close  to  your  work  that  you  do  not 
appreciate  its  collossal  proportions.  You  have  no 
perspective.  In  that  I  have  the  advantage  of  you. 
Coming,  as  I  do,  out  of  the  dead  past,  contemplating 
the  present  as  I  do,  and  looking  to  the  future  as  I 
must,  I  see  the  grandeur  to  which  your  detailed  work 
is  tending,  with  a  clearness  of  vision  impossible  to 
you  because  of  your  nearness  to  it.  May  I  go  on 
and  set  forth  the  whole  of  my  thought  ?  " 

"Yes,  certainly.  I  want  to  hear.  Go  on!" 
"  Well,  then,  let  me  explain  and  illustrate.  A  little 
while  ago,  in  going  over  your  accounts,  I  discovered 
that  the  cotton  and  grain  you  shipped  from  Cairo  to 
New  York  must  be  five  times  transferred  from  one 
car  to  another.  That  entailed  enormous  and  need- 
less expense  in  addition  to  the  delay.  A  few  weeks 
ago  I  suggested  to  a  conference  of  railroad  nabobs 
at  your  house  that  you  should  organize  a  line  of 
through  freight  cars,  which  should  be  loaded  at  Cairo, 


94  A   CAPTAIN  IN  THE   RANKS 

St.  Louis,  Chicago,  or  anywhere  else  in  the  West,  and 
hauled  through  to  New  York,  Boston,  or  anywhere 
else  in  the  East,  without  breaking  bulk.  The  saving 
of  expense  was  so  obvious  that  you  put  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  into  the  line  and  the  railroad  mag- 
nates made  specially  good  terms  for  the  hauling  of 
the  car.  You  expect  and  will  get  dividends  from 
your  investment.  The  railroad  men  see  profit  for 
their  companies  in  the  operation  of  the  line.  That 
is  all  that  you  and  they  foresee  of  advantage.  In 
my  view  that  is  the  very  smallest  part  of  the 
matter." 

"How  do  you  mean?" 

"  Why,  taking  cotton  as  a  basis  of  reckoning,  this 
through-line  system  of  transportation,  owned  inde- 
pendently of  the  railroads,  will  make  an  important 
saving  in  the  cost  of  raw  materials  to  the  owners  of 
New  England  mills.  They  will  run  more  spindles 
and  set  more  looms  agoing  than  they  would  have  done 
without  the  through  line's  cheapening  of  raw  ma- 
terial. They  will  pay  better  wages  and  reap  larger 
profits.  They  will  produce  more  goods,  and  they 
will  sell  them  at  a  smaller  price.  The  farmer  in  the 
West  will  pay  less  for  his  cotton  goods  and  get  more 
for  his  grain  because  of  the  through  line's  cheapen- 
ing of  transportation.  He  and  his  wife  and  his 
children  will  dress  better  at  less  cost  than  they  other- 
wise could  do.  Bear  in  mind  that  the  line's  cars  will 
carry  other  things  than  cotton.     The  people  of  the 


ALLIANCE  95 

East  will  get  their  breadstuff's  and  their  bacon  and 
their  beef  far  cheaper  because  of  its  existence  than 
they  otherwise  could. 

"That  is  one  step  in  advance,  and  it  is  only  one. 
The  success  of  this  line  is  now  assured.  A  dozen  or 
a  score  of  other  through  freight  lines  will  be  organ- 
ized and  operated  in  competition  with  it.  The  present 
line's  rate  of  one  and  a  half  cents  per  ton  per  mile 
will  presently  be  cut  down  by  competition  to  half  a 
cent  per  ton  per  mile,  or  even  less.  I  shall  not  be 
surprised  if,  with  the  improvement  of  railroads  and 
with  their  closer  co-operation  the  freight  rate  shall 
ultimately  be  reduced  even  to  one-fifth  or  one-tenth 
of  a  cent  per  ton  per  mile. 

"  Now,  again.  A  little  while  ago  you  were  in  Wash- 
ington. You  found  it  necessary  to  execute  certain 
papers  and  to  file  them  in  Chicot  County,  Arkansas, 
before  a  certain  fixed  date.  You  ordered  me  by  tele- 
graph to  prepare  the  papers  and  bring  them  to  you 
in  Washington  in  the  speediest  way  possible,  in  order 
that  I  might  carry  them,  within  the  time  limit,  to 
their  destination.  I  started  for  Washington  within 
five  minutes,  by  the  quickest  possible  route,  preparing 
the  papers  on  the  train.  I  had  to  change  cars  five 
times  between  Cairo  and  Washington,  and  seven  times 
more  between  Washington  and  Memphis.  All  that 
will  presently  be  changed.  In  our  conference  the 
other  day  with  the  railroad  men,  I  suggested  some- 
thing to  the  car  builder,  George  M.  Pullman,  which 


96  A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

will  some  day  bear  fruit.  At  present  every  railroad 
runs  its  own  sleeping  cars  and  runs  them  at  a  loss. 
Some  of  them  have  quit  running  them  because  they 
lost  money.  The  trouble  is  that  the  passenger  must 
get  up  in  the  middle  of  the  night  and  transfer  from 
one  sleeping  car  to  another.  Therefore  he  takes  no 
sleeping  car.  I  have  suggested  to  the  car  builder, 
Pullman,  that  he  shall  take  the  sleeping  car  service 
into  his  own  hands  and  run  his  cars  through  from 
every  western  to  every  eastern  city  without  change, 
he  paying  the  railroads  for  hauling  his  cars  and  he 
collecting  the  revenue  that  men  will  be  willing  to  pay 
for  the  comfort  of  through  transportation. 

"  Now,  all  this  is  merely  a  beginning.  The  railroads 
of  this  country,  together  with  the  new  ones  now  build- 
ing, will  presently  be  consolidated  into  great  systems. 
Transportation,  both  as  to  freight  and  as  to  passen- 
gers, is  now  done  at  retail,  and  the  cost  is  enormous. 
It  will,  after  a  while,  be  done  at  wholesale,  and  at  a 
proportionate  reduction  in  cost. 

"  Now  the  thought  that  is  in  my  mind  is  this :  We 
have  got  to  build  this  great  nation  anew  upon  lines 
marked  out  by  the  events  of  the  last  few  years.  The 
war  has  been  costly — enormously  costly.  It  has 
saddled  the  country  with  a  debt  of  about  three 
billions  of  dollars,  besides  the  incalculable  waste. 
But  it  has  awakened  a  great  national  self  conscious- 
ness which  will  speedily  pay  off  the  debt,  and,  inci- 
dentally, develop  the  resources  of  the  country  in  a 


ALLIANCE  97 

way  never  dreamed  of  before.  Those  resources,  so 
far  as  they  are  undeveloped,  or  only  partially  de- 
veloped, lie  mainly  in  the  West  and  South.  It  is  our 
duty  to  develop  them. 

"  The  government  is  building  a  railroad  to  the  Pa- 
cific coast.  That,  when  it  is  done,  will  annex  a  vast 
and  singularly  fruitful  country  to  the  Union.  The 
fertility  of  the  soil  there,  and  the  favorable  climatic 
conditions,  promise  results  that  must  presently 
astonish  mankind.  But  in  the  meanwhile  it  is  our 
part  of  the  nation-building  work  to  develop  the 
resources  of  what  we  now  call  the  West.  Minnesota, 
in  its  eastern  part,  is  already  producing  wheat  in  an 
abundance  that  discourages  all  eastern  farmers  and 
sets  them  to  the  culture  of  small  fruits  and  to  truck 
gardening  for  the  supply  of  the  great  cities  there. 
There  is  great  gain  even  in  that.  Presently  the  Min- 
nesota wheat  farmers  will  extend  their  limitless  fields 
into  the  Dakotah  country  as  soon  as  railroads  are 
built  there — and  a  new  era  of  development  will 
begin." 

"Why  do  you  not  include  the  South  in  your 
reckoning  ?  "  asked  Hallam. 

"I  do.  Under  the  new  conditions  the  South  will 
produce  more  cotton  than  it  ever  did,  and  its  coal 
and  iron  resources  will  be  enormously  developed.  But 
the  South  is,  for  the  present,  handicapped  by  dis- 
turbed conditions  and  a  disorganized  labor  system. 
It  will  be  long  before  that  region  shall  take  its  full 


98  A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

share  in  national  development — in  what  I  call  '  nation 
building.' 

"Pardon  me  for  wandering  so  far  afield.  I  have 
meant  only  to  show  you  what  I  regard  as  the  true 
character  of  the  work  that  you  and  your  associates 
are  doing.  Now,  I  wish  and  intend  to  do  my  share 
in  that  work.  To  that  end,  I  must  have  money  of 
my  own,  and  that  control  of  other  people's  money 
which  comes  only  to  men  who  have  money  of  their 
own.  I  don't  care  a  fig  for  money  for  its  own  sake. 
I  want  it  as  a  tool  with  which  I  may  do  my  work." 

"I  think  I  understand  you,"  answered  Hallam, 
after  a  few  minutes'  reflection.  "  You  shall  have  the 
tools.  You  have  already  put  away  two-thirds  of  your 
salary  from  month  to  month.  I  have  to-day  multi- 
plied that  salary  by  three.  You'll  soon  have  *  grub 
stakes'  for  any  enterprise  you  may  choose  to  enter 
upon.  But  that  isn't  all.  If  it  were,  it  would  mean 
that  I  am  to  lose  you  presently.  I  don't  mean  to  do 
that.  You  are  too  good  a  man  for  a  clerk.  I  pro- 
pose to  make  of  you  a  partner  in  all  my  outside  enter- 
prises. I  must  go  now.  I've  five  people  to  meet  at 
ten  o'clock.  Come  to  me  after  that  hour,  if  you're 
sufficiently  rested,  and  we'll  talk  business." 

"Oh,  I'm  sufficiently  rested  already.  I'll  join  you 
at  ten  or  a  little  later,  as  I  suppose  you  won't  be  free 
till  then." 

Captain  Will  Hallam  rose,  grasped  the  hand  of  his 
companion,  and,  after  a  look  into  his  eyes,  said: 


ALLIANCE  99 

"You're  the  right  sort.  You  have  vim,  force, 
pathos,  and  energy.  You  and  I,  working  together, 
will  salivate  things  in  a  way  that  will  make  Calomel 
ashamed  of  itself." 

"But  how  about  Kennedy  and  his  discharge?" 
asked  Duncan. 

"Oh,  that's  settled.  I've  sent  him  his  quittance 
papers,  and  he's  your  enemy  for  all  time.  You  can 
stand  that." 

"  Yes,  so  long  as  you  are  my  friend." 


XI 

The  Ways  of  Guilford  Duncan 

DURING  all  this  time  Guilford  Duncan  had 
been  taking  his  meals  at  the  little  boarding 
house  of  Mrs.  Deming.  The  other  boarders — 
a  dozen  in  all,  perhaps — did  not  interest  him  at  first, 
and  for  a  time  he  took  his  meals  in  silence,  except  for 
courteous  "good-mornings"  and  "good-evenings." 
His  table  companions  were  mainly  young  clerks  of 
various  grades,  with  whose  ideas  and  aspirations 
young  Duncan  was  very  slightly  in  sympathy. 

After  a  time,  however,  he  decided  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  cultivate  acquaintance  with  these  table  com- 
panions, in  whom  he  recognized  private  soldiers  in 
the  great  army  of  work — the  men  upon  whom  the 
commanders  of  all  degrees  must  rely  for  the  execution 
of  their  plans. 

Accordingly,  Duncan  began  to  take  an  active  part 
in  the  conversations  going  on  about  him,  and  little  by 
little  he  injected  so  much  of  interest  into  them  that 
whenever  he  spoke  he  was  listened  to  with  special  at- 
tention. Without  assuming  superiority  of  any  kind, 
he  came  to  be  recognized  as  in  fact  superior.     He 

100 


THE  WAYS  OF  DUNCAN  101 

came  to  be  a  sort  of  Autocrat  of  th'e'fSreakf  as£  Table, 
directing  the  conversations  there  into  new  channels 
and  better  ones. 

It  was  his  practice  to  buy  and  read  all  the  maga- 
zines as  they  appeared,  including  the  particularly 
interesting  eclectic  periodicals  of  that  time,  in  which 
the  best  European  thought  was  fairly  represented. 

His  reading  furnished  him  many  interesting  themes 
for  table  talk,  and  presently  the  brightest  ones  among 
his  companions  there  began  to  question  him  further 
concerning  the  subjects  he  thus  mentioned.  After 
a  little  while  some  of  them  occasionally  borrowed  read- 
ing matter  of  him,  by  way  of  still  further  satisfying 
their  interest  in  the  matters  of  which  he  talked  at 
table. 

A  little  later  still,  these  brighter  young  men,  one  by 
one,  began  to  visit  Duncan's  room  in  the  evenings. 
In  the  free  and  easy  fashion  of  that  time  and  region, 
he  made  them  welcome  without  permitting  their 
coming  or  going  to  disturb  his  own  evening  occupa- 
tions in  any  serious  way.  His  room  was  very  large, 
well  warmed,  and  abundantly  lighted,  for  he  had 
almost  a  passion  for  light.  There  was  always  a  litter 
of  new  magazines,  weekly  periodicals,  and  the  like 
on  the  big  table  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  and  there 
were  always  piles  of  older  ones  in  the  big  closet.  Still 
further  there  was  a  stand  of  bookshelves  which  was 
beginning  to  be  crowded  with  books  bought  one  by 
one  as  they  came  out,  or  as  Duncan  felt  the  need  of 


102         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

tl dp.  Literature  was  the  young  man'  only  extrava- 
gance, and  that  was  not  a  very  expensive  one. 

"Welcome!  Help  yourself!  Read  what  you  like 
and  you  won't  disturb  me."  That  was  the  spirit  of 
his  greeting  to  all  these  his  friends  whenever  they 
entered  his  door,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  room 
of  the  young  Virginian  became  a  center  of  good  in- 
fluence among  the  young  men  of  the  town. 

How  greatly  such  an  influence  was  needed  the 
bank  officers  and  other  "  solid  "  men  of  the  city  well 
knew  and  strongly  felt.  Few  of  them  ever  thought 
of  reading  anything  themselves  except  the  com- 
mercial columns  of  the  newspapers,  but  they  had  rea- 
sons of  their  own  for  recognizing  the  good  work 
Guilford  Duncan  was  quietly  doing,  by  cultivating 
the  reading  habit  among  their  clerks. 

Cairo  was  an  ill-organized  community  at  that  time. 
The  great  majority  of  its  people  were  "newcomers," 
from  all  quarters  of  the  country,  who  had  as  yet 
scarcely  learned  to  know  each  other.  War  operations 
had  filled  the  town  for  several  years  past  with  shift- 
ing crowds  of  adventurers  of  all  sorts,  who  found  in 
disturbed  conditions  their  opportunity  to  live  by  prey. 
There  were  gambling  houses  and  other  evil  resorts 
in  dangerous  numbers,  where  soldiers  and  discharged 
soldiers  on  their  way  through  the  place  were  tempted 
to  their  ruin  by  every  lure  of  vice  and  every  ease  of 
opportunity  to  go  astray. 

The  solid  men  deplored  these  conditions,  but  were 


THE  WAYS  OF  DUNCAN  103 

as  yet  powerless  to  better  them.  After  the  rush  of 
discharged  soldiers  through  the  town  ceased,  the  evil 
influences  began  to  operate  more  directly  upon  the 
clerks  and  other  young  men  of  the  city  itself.  Some 
who  had  begun  life  there  with  every  prospect  of 
worthy  careers  had  sunk  into  degradation  through 
vicious  indulgence.  Others  who  still  managed  to  hold 
their  places  in  business  and  to  do  their  work  tolerably 
were  manifestly  falling  into  habits  that  darkened 
their  futures.  In  two  or  three  instances  young  men 
of  good  bringing  up,  who  had  earned  enviable  repu- 
tations for  diligence  and  good  conduct,  were  lured 
into  the  gambling  dens,  robbed  there,  and  at  last  were 
tempted  to  defalcations  and  even  sheer  robberies  of 
the  employers  who  trusted  them.  In  one  conspicuous 
case  a  youth  who  had  won  special  regard  among  the 
better  people  by  the  tender  care  he  was  taking  of 
his  mother,  and  by  diligence  and  faithfulness  in  his 
work,  fell  a  victim  to  the  passion  of  gambling,  robbed 
money  packages  that  passed  through  his  hands  as  a 
cashier  in  an  express  office,  was  caught,  convicted,  and 
sentenced  to  prison  as  a  common  felon,  to  the  sad- 
dening of  all  the  town. 

Under  such  circumstances  even  the  least  cultivated 
of  the  hard-headed  business  men  could  not  fail  to 
regard  with  special  pleasure  the  silent  work  that  Dun- 
can was  doing  for  the  salvation  of  at  least  a  consid- 
erable group  of  young  men  who  might  otherwise  have 
fallen  victims  to  the  evil  conditions  that  beset  them. 


104         A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

Apart  from  his  association  with  the  young  men 
who  frequented  his  room,  Duncan  had  no  social  life 
at  all.  He  never  visited  at  any  house,  except  that 
Captain  Hallam  frequently  had  him  to  a  meal  over 
which  the  two  might  "talk  business,"  or  where  he 
might  meet  and  help  entertain  prominent  men  of 
affairs  from  other  cities,  whose  visits  were  inspired 
by  commercial  purposes  far  more  than  by  considera- 
tions of  a  social  nature. 

It  created  some  little  astonishment,  therefore,  when 
one  day  at  the  boarding  house  table,  Duncan  said 
to  those  about  him: 

"  I  hear  that  you  fellows  are  organizing  some  sort 
of  club  for  social  purposes.  Why  haven't  you  given 
me  a  chance  to  join?" 

"  We  didn't  think  you  would  care  for  such  things. 
You  never  go  out,  you  know,  and " 

"What  is  the  purpose  of  your  organization,  if 
you  don't  mind  my  asking?" 

"Oh,  certainly  not.  We're  simply  making  up  a 
little  group,  which  we  call  'The  Coterie,'  to  have  a 
few  dancing  parties  and  amateur  concerts,  and  the 
like,  in  the  big  hotel  dining  room,  during  the  winter. 
We've  a  notion  that  the  young  people  of  Cairo  ought 
to  know  each  other  better.  Our  idea  is  to  promote 
social  intercourse  and  so  we're  all  chipping  in  to  pay 
the  cost,  which  won't  be  much." 

"Well,  may  I  chip  in  with  the  rest?" 

Seeing  glad  assent  in  every  countenance,  he  held 


THE  WAYS  OF  DUNCAN  105 

out  his  hand  for  the  subscription  paper,  and  put  down 
his  name  for  just  double  the  largest  subscription  on 
it.     Then  passing  it  back  he  said: 

"  I  think  I  may  be  able  to  secure  some  support  for 
so  good  an  undertaking,  from  the  business  men  of  the 
city  and  from  others — the  lawyers,  doctors,  and  the 
like.  Your  entertainments  certainly  ought  to  have 
the  benefit  of  their  countenance.  At  any  rate,  I'll 
see  what  I  can  do.  I  don't  know  that  I  shall  myself 
be  able  to  attend  the  dances  and  the  like — in  fact,  I'm 
sure  I  shall  not — but  I'll  do  what  I  can  to  help  the 
cause  along." 

He  did  what  he  could,  and  what  he  could  was  much. 
The  solid  men,  when  he  brought  the  subject  to  their 
attention,  felt  that  this  was  an  extension  of  that 
work  of  Duncan's  for  the  betterment  of  the  town, 
which  they  so  heartily  approved.  They  subscribed 
freely  to  the  expense,  and  better  still,  they  lent  per- 
sonal countenance  to  the  entertainments. 

Guilford  Duncan  also  attended  one  of  the  enter- 
tainments, though  it  had  been  his  fixed  purpose  not  to 
do  so.  The  reason  was  that  Guilford  Duncan  was 
altogether  human  and  a  full-blooded  young  man. 
From  the  time  of  his  arrival  at  Cairo  until  now,  he  had 
not  had  any  association  with  women.  When  such 
association  came  to  him  he  accepted  it  as  a  boon, 
without  relaxing,  in  any  degree,  his  devotion  to 
affairs. 

It  was  the  old  story,  related  in  a  thousand  forms, 


106         A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

but  always  with  the  same  purport,  since  ever  the 
foundations  of  the  world  were  laid. 

"Male  and  female  created  he  them."  "And  God 
saw  that  it  was  good." 

All  of  human  history  is  comprehended  in  those 
two  sentences  quoted  from  the  earliest  history  of  man- 
kind. 


XII 

Barbara  Verne 

THE  person  who  had  originated  and  who  con- 
ducted Mrs.  Deming's  boarding  house — fa- 
mous for  its  fare — was,  in  fact,  not  Mrs. 
Deming  at  all.  That  good  lady  would  pretty  cer- 
tainly have  scored  a  failure  if  she  had  tried  actively  to 
manage  such  an  establishment.  She  had  never  in  her 
life  known  necessity  for  work  of  any  kind,  or  acquired 
the  least  skill  in  its  doing.  She  had  been  bred  in 
luxury  and  had  never  known  any  other  way  of  living 
until  a  few  months  before  Guilford  Duncan  went  to 
take  his  meals  at  what  was  known  as  her  "table." 

She  had  lived  in  a  spacious  and  sumptuously  fur- 
nished suburban  house  near  an  eastern  city,  until  two 
years  or  so  before  the  time  of  this  story. 

When  Barbara  Verne,  her  only  sister's  child,  was 
born  and  orphaned  within  a  single  day,  and  under 
peculiarly  saddening  circumstances,  the  aunt  had 
adopted  her  quite  as  a  matter  of  course. 

No  sooner  had  Barbara  ceased  to  be  an  infant  in 
arms  than  she  began  to  manifest  strong  and  peculiar 
traits  of  character.  Even  as  a  little  child  she  was 
wondered  at  as  "so  queer — so  old  fashioned,  don't 
you  know?" 

107 


108        A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

She  had  a  healthy  child's  love  for  her  dolls,  and 
though  the  persons  around  her  had  not  enough  clear- 
ness of  vision  to  see  that  she  was  fruitfully  and  crea- 
tively imaginative  in  her  peculiar  way,  her  dolls' 
nursery  was  full  of  wonderful  stories,  known  only  to 
herself  and  the  dolls.  Every  doll  there  had  a  per- 
sonality, a  history,  and  a  character  of  its  own.  Bar- 
bara was  the  intimate  of  all  of  them — the  confidential 
friend  and  companion,  who  listened  to  their  imagined 
recitals  of  griefs  and  joys  with  a  sympathetic  soul, 
counseled  them  in  a  prematurely  old  way,  chided  them 
gently  but  firmly  for  their  mistakes,  commended  good 
conduct  whenever  she  discovered  it  in  them,  and  almost 
mercilessly  rebuked  such  shortcomings  as  common 
sense  should  have  spared  them.  For  common  sense 
was  Barbara's  dominant  characteristic. 

She  never  told  their  stories  to  anybody.  That,  she 
felt,  would  have  been  to  betray  their  confidence  shame- 
fully. It  was  only  by  eavesdropping  on  the  part  of 
her  nursery  maid,  and  by  casual  overhearings  of  her 
talk  with  her  dolls  that  their  life  stories  became  known 
to  anybody  except  herself. 

And  Barbara  quickly  put  an  end  to  the  eavesdrop- 
ping when  she  discovered  it.  She  had  a  French 
nursery  governess,  Mathilde,  whose  double  function  it 
was  to  look  after  the  child  and  to  teach  her  French  by 
talking  to  her  only  in  that  tongue.  The  maid,  in 
fact,  made  the  child  teach  her  English,  by  talking 
with  her  chiefly  in  that  language. 


BARBARA  VERNE  109 

That,  however,  was  an  offense  the  child  did  not  con- 
sider. She  did  not  greatly  value  instruction  in  French 
— "Engli&h  is  so  much  better,"  she  used  to  say  to 
her  aunt.  "  And  besides,  nobody  ever  talks  in  French. 
So  why  should  we  bother  about  it?  Of  course,  I  like 
to  have  La  Fontaine's  Fables  read  to  me,  and  I  like 
to  read  them  to  my  dolls,  because  the  dolls  always 
enjoy  them." 

"How  do  you  know  that,  Barbara?" 
"Why,  because  they  never  interrupt.  When  I 
tell  them  'make  up'  stories  of  my  own,  they  often 
interrupt  me.  They  'want  to  know,'  and  sometimes 
I  can't  tell  them.  But  with  La  Fontaine's  stories  it 
is  never  so.  Still  I  don't  think  French  is  of  much 
consequence." 

That  was  the  ill-informed  and  immature  judgment 
of  a  child  of  seven  or  eight  years.  Perhaps  the  other 
judgment  with  which  that  same  child  coupled  it  in 
the  lectures  she  sometimes  gave  her  French  nursery 
governess  was  sounder. 

^  "  Mathilde,  you  are  an  eavesdropper,"  she  solemnly 
said  to  the  girl  one  night.  "You  hide  behind  the 
door  and  listen  while  Phillida  tells  me  about  the  way 
Corydon  treats  her.  And  you  listen  while  I  tell 
Phillida  not  to  be  foolish,  and  while  I  talk  to  Corydon 
about  his  behavior.  I  shouldn't  mind  that  so  much, 
Mathilde,  if  you  didn't  laugh  at  the  dolls  and  their 
troubles.     I  don't  like  that." 

But,  notwithstanding  the  child's  imaginative  gift, 


110         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

she  was  intensely  practical,  in  a  quick-witted  way  that 
often  astonished  those  about  her.  She  had  an  eager 
desire  to  learn  domestic  arts,  and  her  peculiar  con- 
scientiousness in  the  doing  of  whatever  she  undertook 
to  do,  usually  resulted  in  a  skill  superior  to  that  of  her 
teachers. 

She  loved  to  haunt  the  kitchen,  where  her  courtesy 
won  even  the  cantankerous  cook  for  a  friend,  and  from 
her  the  girl  learned  so  much  of  her  art  that  the  cook 
could  teach  her  no  more.  In  the  laundry  the  good- 
natured  Irish  woman  who  presided  over  that  depart- 
ment of  household  economy  gave  her  always  so  warm 
a  welcome  that  the  child  came  to  think  of  the  faithful 
woman  as  one  of  her  choicest  friends.  Working  with 
her  over  a  little  ironing  board,  Barbara  quickly 
became  expert  in  all  the  finer  and  more  delicate 
operation  of  her  art,  or  as  the  laundress  herself 
said: 

"  Shure,  the  blissed  choild  puts  the  raal  Oirish  ac- 
cint  into  the  doin'  up  of  a  pretty  frock." 

When  she  grew  a  little  older,  Barbara's  French 
nursery  governess  left  her,  and  from  that  hour,  almost 
without  knowing  it,  the  child  took  her  education 
largely  into  her  own  hands,  and  her  aunt  stood  too 
much  in  awe  of  her  almost  preternatural  resoluteness, 
to  interfere  in  any  serious  way.  She  provided  mas- 
ters for  the  child,  but  it  was  the  girl  herself  and  not 
the  masters  who  decided  what  she  should  learn. 

In  that  early  time  it  was  not  generally  thought 


BARBARA  VERNE  111 

necessary,  or  even  desirable,  to  send  girls  away  from 
home  to  study  in  colleges  in  company  with  boys — to 
learn  Latin,  Greek,  mathematics,  and  basketball — to 
read  the  indecencies  of  classic  literature — and  to 
mould  themselves  into  an  unlovely  similitude  to 
men.  But  there  were  frivolities  in  the  education  of 
women  then  which  were  almost  as  conspicuous  as  are 
the  masculinities  that  have  since  taken  their  place. 

In  Barbara's  case  neither  of  these  influences  was 
felt.  Without  quite  knowing  what  her  own  thought 
was,  the  girl  early  made  up  her  mind  that  she  would 
learn  thoroughly  all  things  that  a  woman  must  prac- 
tice in  life,  that  she  would  make  herself  fit  to  do  a 
woman's  part  in  the  world  without  any  pretense  what- 
ever. 

She  was  set  at  one  time  to  learn  the  piano,  as  in 
that  day  every  girl  was,  to  the  saddening  of  human 
existence  and  the  torturing  of  human  nerves.  After 
taking  a  few  lessons  Barbara  was  shrewd  enough  to 
discover  that  she  had  no  musical  gifts  worth  cultivat- 
ing. She  therefore  promptly  requested  her  aunt  to 
dismiss  her  music  master. 

"  Oh,  but  you  must  learn  to  play,  you  know,  dear." 

"Why  must  I,  auntie?" 

"  Oh,  well,  every  girl  must,  you  know." 

"But  why,  auntie?"  persisted  the  little  female 
Socrates. 

"  Why,  it's  a  necessary  part  of  every  girl's  educa- 
tion, you  know." 


112         A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

"  Oh,  I  know  they  all  do  it,"  answered  the  girl, "  but 
most  of  them  would  do  better  to  leave  it  alone.  You 
often  say  that  it  tortures  you  to  hear  girls  ■  pound  the 
piano '  when  they  want  to  show  off.  Now,  I  haven't 
the  gift  for  music,  and  I  don't  want  to  show  off.  Why 
should  I  learn  to  ■  pound  the  piano '  and  make  other 
people  miserable?" 

So  the  argument  went  on,  and  it  ended  at  last,  as 
it  was  predestined  to  end,  in  the  abandonment  of  the 
piano  lessons,  leaving  Barbara  to  grow  up  in  com- 
plete ignorance  of  an  art  which,  in  that  half-barbaric 
time,  was  deemed  a  necessary  "accomplishment"  of 
every  young  woman  who  had  fingers,  whether  she  had 
any  perception  of  music  or  not. 

For  the  rest,  Barbara  educated  herself  upon  lines 
which  she  deemed  'womanly.  There  was  no  art  of 
kitchen  or  laundry  or  sewing  room  in  which,  as  she 
grew  older,  she  did  not  make  herself  the  superior  of 
the  highly  paid  servitors  whose  skill  her  aunt  em- 
ployed to  perform  such  functions.  For  explanation 
she  said  only: 

"  I  am  to  be  a  woman.  I  must  know  how  to  do  all 
womanly  things.  If  I  don't  know  all  that  better 
than  the  servants  do,  I  must  always  be  dependent 
upon  servants.     I  think  that  would  be  humiliating." 

In  the  same  spirit  she  took  up  such  school  studies 
as  she  deemed  proper  to  her  womanhood  and  only  such. 
But  she  gave  to  each  a  degree  of  conscience  that  al- 
ways surprised  her  teachers.     She  had  not  the  gift  of 


BARBARA  VERNE  113 

learning  easily,  but  her  devotion  was  such  that  she 
learned  thoroughly  in  spite  of  all  the  difficulties.  She 
early  conceived  the  notion  that  she  must  know  her 
own  language  well— how  to  spell  it,  how  to  pronounce 
it,  and,  still  more,  how  to  use  it  simply,  honestly,  and 
effectively  in  the  expression  of  her  thought.  Her 
over-mastering  devotion  to  truth  would  not  let  her 
rest  content  with  any  loose  or  inaccurate  expression. 
"  No,"  she  would  say,  "  that  isn't  the  word  I  want. 
It  doesn't  say  just  what  I  mean,"  and  she  would  never 
be  satisfied  until  she  found  the  word  she  did  want. 

The  handwriting  to  wliich  she  schooled  herself  was 
in  like  manner  scrupulously  truthful.  The  writing 
masters  of  that  time  cared  far  more  for  ornateness 
than  for  verity,  or  even  legibility.  They  laboriously 
taught  their  pupils  to  make  "  hair  "  lines  for  upstrokes 
and  heavily  "shaded"  ones  for  down.  They  deco- 
rated their  capital  letters  with  meaningless  flourishes, 
and  they  did  many  other  things  equally  useless  and 
unworthy. 

Barbara  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  such  insin- 
cerities. She  would  not  even  try  to  learn  them.  She 
studied  the  essential  form  of  each  letter,  and,  dis- 
carding everything  else,  she  wrote,  as  she  herself  said, 
"  so  that  other  people  might  read  easily."  The  result 
was  a  dainty  little  round-lettered  text,  which  had  truth 
for  its  basis  and  uncompromising  sincerity  for  its 
inspiration. 

Arithmetic  gave  her  a  good  deal  of  trouble.     Had 


114         A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

the  mastery  of  that  science  been  an  "accomplish- 
ment," she  would  have  put  it  aside  as  one  for  which 
she  had  no  gift,  as  she  had  done  with  music.  But 
she  realized  that  one  must  acquire  a  certain  facility 
in  calculation,  and  she  did  all  the  work  necessary  to 
acquire  that  facility.  She  puckered  her  pretty  fore- 
head over  the  "sums"  that  she  had  to  do,  and  she 
often,  all  her  life,  employed  roundabout  methods  in 
doing  them.  But  in  the  end  she  got  the  "  answers  " 
right,  and  that  was  all  that  the  little  truth  wor- 
shiper cared  for  in  the  case. 

She  early  became  fond  of  reading  such  books  as 
appealed  to  her.  She  would  never  consent  to  believe 
that  she  ought  to  read  books  that  did  not  find  a  re- 
sponse in  her  mind,  merely  on  the  ground  that  their 
reading  was  deemed  a  proper  part  of  every  young 
person's  education. 

"All  that  sort  of  thing  is  'show  off,'"  she  used  to 
say.  "It  is  a  false  pretense;"  and  she  scorned  all 
false  pretenses. 

Yet  she  was  by  no  means  an  idly  self-indulgent 
reader.  She  diligently  mastered  some  books  that  did 
not  particularly  interest  her,  because  she  believed 
them  to  contain  information  or  instruction  or  counsel 
that  might  benefit  her. 

When  she  was  only  a  dozen  years  old  or  so,  the  little 
woman  took  upon  herself  the  duties  of  housekeeper  in 
her  aunt's  mansion,  and  kept  order  there  in  a  way 
that  won  something  like  local  fame  for  herself.     It 


BARBARA  VERNE  115 

was  not  art,  or  intuition,  or  rule  that  inspired  her.     It 
was  temperament. 

Absolute  cleanliness  was  to  her  a  religion,  and  the 
servant  who  fell  in  the  remotest  way  short  of  that 
was  quickly  made  to  think  of  herself  as  an  unre- 
generate  sinner.  Absolute  neatness  was  another 
requirement  which  the  budding  little  woman  inisted 
upon  with  relentless  persistence.  Then  again  it 
seemed  to  her  that  there  was  no  possible  excuse  for 
any  cooking  short  of  the  best. 

"Why  should  a  beefsteak  be  scorched?"  she  would 
ask  protestingly.  "  It  is  only  a  question  of  attention 
and  honesty.  Why  should  the  aroma  be  boiled  out 
of  a  pot  of  coffee?  Again,  it  is  only  a  matter  of 
attention  and  honesty."  That  was  her  attitude  al- 
ways, and  the  servant  who  hoped  to  please  her  must 
ceaselessly  recognize  it. 

Sometimes  her  aunt  would  plead  for  a  little  lenity 
in  these  matters,  but  the  girl  would  grant  none. 
"  The  servants  are  employed  to  do  things  right.  Why 
should  I  let  them  do  things  wrong?  They  profess 
to  have  skill  in  such  work.  Surely,  they  ought  to 
do  it  as  well  as  I  can,  who  have  no  skill.  And  besides, 
it  wouldn't  be  good  for  them  to  let  them  off  with  less 
than  the  best.  They  would  degenerate.  They  have 
their  living  to  make  by  work,  and  the  better  work  they 
do  the  better  work  they  can  do." 

A  few  years  later  the  aunt's  husband  met  with  mis- 
fortune and  went  to  the  W^est.     Presently  he  died, 


116         A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

and  Barbara's  aunt  was  widowed  and  impoverished 
at  one  and  the  same  time. 

Then  it  was  that  Barbara  rose  in  the  strength  of 
her  practical  wisdom,  and  met  the  emergency  with  all 
of  character  that  she  had  built  up.  Her  aunt  was 
helpless,  so  Barbara  took  matters  into  her  own  hands. 
She  was  nearly  twenty  years  old  then,  and  her  capaci- 
ties as  a  housekeeper  had  ripened  through  use  until 
she  felt  modestly  confident  of  herself.  "  Besides," 
she  argued,  "there  is  nobody  else  to  do  things  if  I 
don't." 

She  persuaded  her  aunt  to  take  a  little  house  with 
a  big  sunny  dining  room,  and  there  she  offered  to  the 
young  bachelors  of  the  town — in  her  aunt's  name — 
better  meals  than  they  could  get  at  the  pretentious 
hotel,  and  she  charged  them  scarcely  more  than  half 
the  hotel  rate. 

One  by  one  the  best  of  the  young  men  in  the  town 
were  drawn  to  Barbara's  table  until  the  dining  room 
was  filled.  After  that  anyone  who  wished  to  join 
the  circle  must  put  his  name  upon  a  waiting  list,  and 
bide  his  time  till  there  should  be  a  vacancy.  For  Bar- 
bara held  that  it  would  be  unjust  to  crowd  present 
boarders  in  order  to  take  new  ones,  and  she  hated  all 
injustice.  The  waiting  list  was  always  long,  for  the 
fame  of  Barbara's  table  was  great. 

When  her  friends  suggested  an  increase  in  her 
charges,  she  promptly  said  them  nay.  "  I'm 
charging  enough,"  she  answered.     "The  gentlemen 


BARBARA  VERNE  117 

pay  us  enough  to  keep  auntie  and  me  comfortable. 
They  have  to  work  hard  for  their  money,  and  it  would 
be  very  mean  to  charge  them  more,  merely  because 
they'll  pay  it  rather  than  get  their  meals  anywhere 
else." 

"  Perhaps  so,"  answered  Captain  Will  Hallam,  who 
had  pressed  this  advice  upon  the  girl.  "But  it's 
always  good  business,  you  know,  to  get  what  you 
can.  A  thing  is  worth  what  it  will  sell  for,  and  your 
good  dinners,  Miss  Barbara,  would  sell  for  a  good 
deal  more  than  you  are  charging  for  them." 

But  Barbara  would  not  listen  to  the  wisdom  of 
"business."  Hers  was  the  wisdom  of  a  white  soul, 
and  it  controlled  her  absolutely. 

And  it  really  was  her  own  skill  that  made  her  table 
famous.  She  hired  a  cook,  of  course,  after  her  little 
business  became  prosperous,  and  sometimes  for  a  brief 
while  she  trusted  to  the  cook's  skill.  Then  her  con- 
science beset  her  because  the  breakfasts  and  dinners 
and  suppers  were  not  prepared  in  that  perfection 
which  alone  could  satisfy  this  conscientious  little 
woman's  soul.  "  You  see,  it  isn't  honest,  aunty,"  she 
would  say  in  explanation  whenever  she  returned  to 
the  kitchen  and  gave  personal  attention  to  every  detail. 
"We  are  charging  these  young  gentlemen  for  their 
meals,  and  it  seems  to  me  dishonest  if  we  give  them 
less  than  the  best  that  we  can.  They  come  to  us  be- 
cause they  have  heard  that  we  serve  the  best  meals 
that  can  be  had  in  Cairo.     How  mean  and  wrong  it 


118         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

would  be  for  us  to  trade  upon  that  reputation  and  give 
them  meals  of  an  inferior  quality!  I  simply  can't 
get  a  cook  who  will  do  things  at  their  best,  and  so  I 
must  do  most  of  the  cooking  myself,  and  then  I'll 
know  it  is  well  done." 

She  hired  a  "neat-handed  Phyllis,"  in  a  cambric 
gown — which  Barbara  insisted  must  be  fresh  and  clean 
every  day— to  wait  upon  the  table.  She  hired  a 
handy  negro  boy  to  wash  dishes,  scrub,  and  prepare 
vegetables  under  her  own  direction.  She  did  all  the 
more  important  part  of  the  cooking  herself,  and  the 
negro  boy,  Bob,  simply  worshiped  the  girl  whom  he 
always  addressed  as  "Little  Missie." 


XIII 

A  Battle  and  an  Acquaintance 

THERE  were  boys  in  Cairo,  of  course,  and 
equally  of  course  some  of  them  were  bad. 
The  bad  ones  used  to  do  things  to  annoy 
Robert's  "Little  Missie."  Robert  proceeded  to 
thrash  them  upon  every  proper  occasion,  and  he  did 
it  with  a  thoroughness  that  left  nothing  to  be  desired 
thereafter.  When  Robert  had  thrashed  a  boy,  that 
boy  went  to  bed  for  repairs.  And  he  was  apt  to  be 
reticent  as  to  where  and  how  he  had  received  his 
bruises.  That  was  because  Robert  always  ended  a 
fist  encounter  with  a  warning. 

"  Ef  you  don't  want  a  double  dose  o'  dis  here  you'll 
prehaps  obstain  f'um  mentionin'  de  name  o'  de  culled 
gentleman  wot  gib  it  ter  you." 

And  the  victim  usually  "  obstained."  If  he  didn't 
it  was  presently  the  worse  for  him. 

Robert  had  been  born  in  the  South.  He  had  lived 
there  till  his  fourteenth  year.  He  had  there  imbibed 
certain  doctrines  of  pugnacious  chivalry.  There  had 
been  bred  in  his  bone  the  conviction  that  it  was  every 

119 


120         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

strong  man's  duty  to  protect  every  woman,  and  to 
punish  any  disrespect  shown  to  her. 

In  Robert's  view  there  was  only  one  gentlewoman 
in  Cairo — his  "  Little  Missie  " — and  it  seemed  to  him 
as  clearly  a  matter  of  duty  to  protect  her  against 
annoyance  as  it  was  to  scrub  the  kitchen  floor  or  to 
wash  the  dishes. 

It  was  through  one  of  Robert's  battles  that  Guil- 
ford Duncan  became  acquainted  with  his  hostess,  Bar- 
bara Verne.  That  young  woman  very  rarely  ap- 
peared in  the  dining  room,  and  so  the  young  Virginian 
had  scarcely  more  than  met  her,  when  one  morning  on 
his  way  to  breakfast  he  came  upon  a  battle  between 
Robert — "  free  man  of  color,"  as  he  loved  to  call  him- 
self— and  three  Cairo  boys  who  had  waylaid  him  in 
order  to  avenge  the  punishment  he  had  given  a  few 
days  before  to  one  of  them  who  had  playfully  hurled 
half  a  brick  through  Barbara's  kitchen  window. 

When  Duncan  came  upon  the  battlefield,  Robert 
was  backed  up  against  a  dead  wall.  Two  of  his  ad- 
versaries had  gone  to  grass,  and  the  third  was  hesi- 
tating to  prosecute  the  attack  alone.  Seeing  his 
hesitation,  Bob — great  stategist  that  he  was — 
instantly  decided  to  convert  his  successful  defense  into 
a  successful  offense,  without  delay.  Quitting  his 
defensive  position  against  the  wall,  he  rushed  upon  his 
remaining  adversary,  who  promptly  retreated  with- 
out waiting  to  reckon  up  the  casualties. 

Then  Bob  jumped  upon  his  other  and  slowly  rising 


BATTLE  AND  ACQUAINTANCE       121 

antagonists,  knocked  them  down  again  and  hurriedly 
exacted  of  each  a  "  wish-I-may-die "  promise  to  let 
"Little  Missie"  alone  from  that  day  forth. 

"Good  for  you,  Bob!"  exclaimed  young  Duncan. 
"  But  we'll  make  that  promise  more  binding.  Help  me 
and  I'll  take  these  young  ruffians  before  Judge  Gross 
and  compel  them  to  give  bonds  for  good  behavior." 

It  didn't  take  long  to  arraign  the  culprits,  prove 
that  they  had  thrown  a  brickbat  through  Barbara's 
window,  and  secure  an  order  of  the  court  requiring 
them  to  give  considerable  bonds  for  good  behavior  in 
future. 

This  brought  their  parents  into  court  and  subjected 
them  to  a  good  deal  of  annoyance  and  trouble.  They 
had  to  give  bonds,  and  more  troublesome  still,  they 
had  to  control  their  boys.  Then  again  the  news- 
papers published  the  facts. 

In  this  way  Guilford  Duncan  multiplied  his  enemies 
in  Cairo.  But  he  had  a  deep-seated  conviction  that 
it  is  worth  a  man's  while  to  make  enemies  by  doing 
right.  In  this  matter  he  had  done  only  right.  He 
had  invoked  the  law  for  the  protection  of  a  woman, 
and  he  had  completely  accomplished  his  purpose.  He 
cared  nothing  for  the  revilings  that  ensued,  but  Ober, 
the  man  of  brains  and  character  who  edited  the  prin- 
cipal newspaper  of  the  town,  took  the  matter  up  and 
made  much  of  k. 

"  This  town  is  barbaric,"  he  wrote  in  his  editorial 
columns,     "It  owes  sincere  thanks  to  Mr.  Guilford 


122         A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

Duncan  for  teaching  it  that  law  is  supreme,  that  it 
is  to  the  law  we  should  appeal  in  every  case  of  wrong 
doing.  The  parents  of  the  young  hoodlums  who  have 
been  bound  over  to  keep  the  peace  have  long  needed 
this  lesson.  This  newspaper  rejoices  that  the  lesson 
has  been  given  in  so  emphatic  and  conspicuous  a 
manner.  It  congratulates  its  young  fellow  citizen, 
Mr.  Duncan,  upon  the  quality  of  his  citizenship,  and 
upon  the  results  of  its  activity." 

Within  an  hour  after  that  editorial  appeared,  three 
columns  of  advertisements  were  angrily  withdrawn 
from  Ober's  newspaper. 

Within  the  next  hour  Captain  Will  Hallam  quietly 
sent  in  nineteen  columns  of  advertisements,  and  wrote 
to  Ober :  "  Stand  by  your  guns  and  I'll  stand  by  you. 
If  the  damned  fools  think  they  can  squelch  you  or 
Duncan  in  such  a  case  as  this,  we'll  teach  them  better. 
Spread  my  advertisements  all  over  the  paper  and  send 
bills  to  me.  Keep  it  up.  We'll  make  Cairo  a  better 
town  to  live  in,  or  we'll  know  why.  The  thing  to  do 
now  is  to  make  a  systematic  campaign  against  abuses. 
Do  it  with  all  your  might,  and  I'll  stand  by  you. 

"I'll  get  Duncan  to  help  you.  He's  a  queer 
fellow,  but  he  knows  how  to  use  vitriol  instead  of  ink, 
and  it's  vitriol  we  need  just  now." 

In  the  meanwhile  the  entire  talk  of  the  little  city 
was  of  Duncan's  activity  in  haling  the  hoodlum  sons 
of  highly  "  respectable  "  parents  before  a  magistrate, 
as  a  consequence  of  their  battle  with  a  "  nigger."     On 


BATTLE   AND  ACQUAINTANCE       123 

that  subject  tongues  wagged  busily,  pro  and  con. 
The  friends  of  the  aggrieved  parents  who  had  been 
forced  to  give  bonds  for  the  good  behavior  of  their 
ill-regulated  offspring,  indignantly  made  a  "race 
issue"  of  a  matter  which  had  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  race  prejudice. 

They  could  not  understand  how  a  southerner  and 
an  ex-Confederate  soldier  could  thus  have  taken  the 
part  of  a  "  nigger  "  against  "  respectable  white  boys." 
Others  who  were  clamorous  for  the  "rights  of  the 
negro,"  rejoiced  in  Duncan  as  a  convert  to  their  doc- 
trine. 

Both  were  wrong,  of  course.  Neither  in  the  re- 
motest way  recognized  the  real  impulses  of  his  act, 
namely,  the  impulse  to  protect  a  woman  and  the  im- 
pulse of  a  law-loving  citizen  to  insist  upon  the  equal 
enforcement  of  the  law,  for  the  sake  of  good  order 
in  the  community.  But  Duncan  concerned  himself 
with  none  of  these  things.  He  had  done  his  simple 
duty  as  a  man  and  as  a  citizen,  and  he  had  no  care 
whatever  for  consequences. 

And  yet  the  consequences  were  such  as  vitally 
affected  his  entire  career  in  more  ways  than  one.  His 
performance  brought  him,  for  one  thing,  into  close 
acquaintance  with  a  certain  young  woman  whom  he 
had  scarcely  known  before,  and  whose  destiny  it  was 
to  influence  the  entire  future  course  of  his  life. 

It  was  Duncan's  habit  to  sit  long  and  smoke  over 
his  final  cup  of  coffee  at  the  evening  meal.     The 


124         A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

other  table  boarders  were  accustomed  to  hurry  away 
as  soon  as  they  had  swallowed  their  supper,  leaving 
him  in  sole  possession  of  the  dining  room. 

On  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  the  events 
already  related  occurred,  he  sat  as  usual,  smoking, 
sipping  his  coffee,  and  reading  Ober's  evening  news- 
paper. Presently  Barbara  Verne  entered,  and  with 
a  manner  in  which  extreme  shyness  was  mingled  with 
a  resolute  determination  to  do  the  duty  that  lay  before 
her,  approached  young  Duncan  and  held  out  her 
hand.  As  he  rose  deferentially  to  greet  her,  taking 
her  proffered  hand  in  his,  the  girl  said : 

"I've  come  to  thank  you,  Mr.  Duncan.  It  was 
very  kind  of  you — to  protect  Robert,  you  know — and 
me.     I'm  Barbara  Verne.    Thank  you,  ever  so  much." 

As  she  made  her  little  speech  the  brave  but  timid 
girl  looked  him  in  the  eyes  with  the  embarrassed  front 
of  a  child  set  to  do  a  duty,  mingled  with  the  calm 
composure  of  a  woman  who  knows  and  cherishes  the 
dignity  of  her  womanhood. 

Duncan  protested  that  no  thanks  were  due  him  for 
doing  his  simple  duty,  and,  after  a  word  or  two  more, 
the  girl  quitted  the  room,  while  Duncan,  gallantly 
bowing,  held  the  door  open  for  her. 

The  little  interview  lasted  for  less  than  two  minutes, 
and  not  an  unnecessary  word  was  spoken  on  either 
side.  Yet  it  seemed  to  Duncan  an  event  of  conse- 
quence, as  indeed,  it  proved  to  be. 

Something  in  the  girl's  voice,  or  manner,  or  some- 


BATTLE  AND  ACQUAINTANCE       125 

thing  in  her  eyes,  or  something  in  her  grace  of  move- 
ment, her  bearing,  her  mingled  simplicity  and  dignity 

or  something  in  all  these  combined — had  mightily 

impressed  him.  He  had  seen  little  of  women  in  any 
intimate  way,  and  while  he  honored  womanhood  and 
deferred  to  it,  as  every  sound-souled  man  must,  he  had 
thought  himself  quite  indifferent  to  women  in  their 
individual  personality.  But  somehow  he  could  not 
feel  so  with  Barbara  Verne,  and  later  in  the  evening 
he  scourged  himself  for  his  folly  in  continuing  to  think 
of  her  to  the  interruption  of  the  reading  he  had  set 
himself  to  do. 

"What's  the  matter  with  me?"  he  asked  himself 
almost  with  irritation,  as  at  last  he  laid  down  the 
volume  of  Herbert  Spencer's  Social  Statics,  over 
which  he  had  been  laboring  in  vain.  "  I  can't  read 
a  single  paragraph  with  understanding.  I  can't 
keep  my  attention  upon  the  lines  as  I  read  them.  I 
must  be  tired  out — though  I  don't  know  what  has 
tired  me.  Fortunately  I've  no  visitors  to-night. 
They  have  all  gone  to  hear  the  Swiss  Bell  Ringers  at 
the  Athenaeum.  I  wonder  if  anybody  took  Barbara 
Verne?" 

Thus  his  thought  came  back  again  to  the  girl  and 
he  was  annoyed  with  himself  for  having  permitted 
that. 

"  I  do  not  know  the  girl  at  all,"  he  reflected.  "  Ex- 
cept to  bow  a  distant  *  good-morning '  or  *  good-even- 
ing '  at  infrequent  intervals,  I  never  spoke  to  her  until 


126        A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

this  evening,  and  then  the  interview  was  one  of  purely 
formal  courtesy.  And  yet  here  I  am  thinking  about 
her  so  persistently  that  even  Herbert  Spencer  cannot 
win  my  attention." 

Then  he  sat  for  a  time  trying  to  think  of  some- 
thing else,  or  trying,  with  renewed  resolution,  to  con- 
centrate his  attention  upon  his  book. 

The  effort  was  a  dismal  failure.  Barbara  Verne's 
eyes  gazed  softly  at  him  out  of  the  page,  her  gentle 
voice  echoed  in  his  ears,  and  the  simple,  straightfor- 
ward words  of  thanks  that  she  had  spoken  thrust  out 
of  his  mind  the  words  of  the  great  philosopher,  as 
the  youth  endeavored  to  read  them. 

He  was  sitting,  in  his  dressing  gown,  with  his  slip- 
pered feet  resting  upon  a  stool.  In  the  large  grate 
a  mass  of  Pittsburg  coal  blazed  and  flickered  rest- 
fully.  At  his  elbow  softly  burned  a  shaded  student 
lamp,  on  a  table  covered  with  a  scarlet  and  black 
cloth,  and  littered  with  books.  The  curtains — inex- 
pensive, but  heavy — were  closely  drawn  to  shut  out 
every  suggestion  of  the  wintry  night  outside. 

"  Confound  it,"  muttered  the  young  man  aloud,  as 
he  again  threw  down  the  book,  this  time  without  mark- 
ing his  place ;  "  if  I  weren't  so  supremely  comfortable 
here,  I'd  get  myself  into  my  clothes  again  and  go  out 
to  fight  the  night  for  a  while.  That  would  be  the 
right  thing  to  do,  but  I'm  too  self-indulgent  to  do  it. 
Wonder  if  Barbara  Verne  ever  shirked  a  duty  for 
the  sake  of  comfort?  " 


BATTLE   AND   ACQUAINTANCE       127 

Thus  he  began  again  to  think  of  the  girl. 

"  She's  a  new  type  to  me,"  he  thought,  as  he  gazed 
into  the  fire.  "She  seems  almost  a  child,  and  yet 
altogether  a  woman.  Wonder  what  her  life  has  been. 
I  fancy  she  felt,  when  she  came  in  to  thank  me,  like 
a  child  who  has  been  naughty  and  is  required  to  make 
a  proper  apology.  There  was  certainly  a  sugges- 
tion of  that  sort  of  thing  in  her  manner,  just  at 
first.  Then  the  strong  woman  in  her  mastered  the 
child,  and  she  carried  out  her  determination  resolutely. 
It  is  very  charming,  that  combination  of  shy  child- 
likeness,  with  the  self-control  of  a  strong  woman." 

At  this  point  Guilford  Duncan  impatiently  kicked 
over  his  footrest,  rose  to  his  feet  and  began  dressing 
for  the  out  of  doors.  "What  an  idiot  I  am!"  he 
thought.  "Here  I  am  presuming  to  analyze  the 
moods  and  motives  of  a  young  woman  of  whose  life 
and  character  I  know  nothing  whatever,  and  with 
whom  I  have  exchanged  not  more  than  a  dozen  or 
twenty  sentences  in  all  my  life.  You  need  a  drench- 
ing in  the  storm,  Guilford  Duncan,  and  you  shall  have 
it,  in  the  interest  of  your  sanity." 

Donning  his  boots  and  overcoat,  and  pulling  his 
slouch  hat  well  down  over  his  eyes  and  ears,  the  young 
man  strode  out  into  the  storm. 

When  he  came  back  at  midnight,  drenched  and 
chilled,  his  fire  had  burned  itself  out.  After  he  had 
rubbed  his  damp  skin  into  a  healthful  glow,  he  extin- 
guished the  lamp  and  crawled  into  bed. 


128        A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

In  spite  of  all,  however,  Guilford  Duncan  was  still 
thinking  of  Barbara  Verne,  when,  at  last,  he  sank  to 
sleep.  His  final  thought  of  her  took  the  form  of  a 
resolution : 

"  I  will  call  upon  her,  and  become  really  acquainted 
with  her.  That  will  cure  me  of  this  strange  and  ut- 
terly absurd  fascination.  Of  course  the  girl  must 
be  commonplace  in  the  main,  and  when  I  come  to 
realize  that,  the  glamour  will  fade  away." 


XIV 

A  Social  Advance 

GUILFORD  DUNCAN  carried  out  his  pur- 
•pose,  as  he  thought,  with  a  good  deal  of 
tact.  He  began  by  calling,  not  upon  Bar- 
bara, but  upon  three  or  four  other  young  women — 
a  thing  he  had  never  done  before.  He  thought  in 
this  way  to  make  his  call  upon  Barbara,  when  it  should 
come,  an  inconspicuous  event.  To  his  surprise, 
his  entrance  thus  into  society  created  something  of 
a  flutter  among  the  women-folk,  especially  the  mar- 
ried women  who  had  marriageable  daughters,  or 
who  were  matchmakingly  interested  in  other  young 
women,  not  their  daughters. 

For  Guilford  Duncan,  the  moment  he  was  thought 
of  as  a  social  factor,  and  a  matrimonial  possibility, 
was  seen  to  be  the  "  best  catch  "  in  the  little  city,  the 
most  desirable  young  man  in  the  town.  He  was 
young  and  distinctly  handsome.  He  was  a  man  of 
education,  culture,  and  superior  intelligence.  His 
manners  were  easy,  polished,  and  very  winning, 
Especially  he  treated  women  with   a  certain  chiv- 

129 


130        A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

alric  deference,  that  pleased  them  even  more  than 
they  knew.  Captain  Will  Hallam's  wife,  who  was  the 
social  leader  of  the  city,  said  to  him  one  day : 

"  You  must  be  careful  what  you  do  in  the  way  of 
paying  attention  to  young  women.  A  very  little  at- 
tention on  your  part  is  apt  to  mean  a  great  deal  to 
a  girl — and  still  more  to  her  mamma." 

"  But  why  should  it?  "  asked  Duncan,  in  unfeigned 
astonishment.  "Why  should  ordinary  social  cour- 
tesy on  my  part  mean  more  than  the  same  thing 
means  in  the  case  of  any  other  young  man  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  can  tell  you,"  she  answered. 
"  At  least,  I  don't  know  that  I  can  make  you  under- 
stand." 

"I  sincerely  wish  you  would  try.  I  certainly  do 
not  want  to "  He  hesitated,  and  did  not  com- 
plete the  sentence. 

"Oh,  I  know  all  that.  I  know  what  you  mean, 
because  it  is  what  I  mean.  I  tell  you  that  if  you  pay 
more  than  just  a  little,  and  a  very  casual,  attention 
to  any  girl,  the  girl,  and,  worse  still,  all  her  elderly 
female  relatives,  are  likely  to  misconstrue  your  mo- 
tives. You  are  in  serious  danger  of  breaking  some 
tender  hearts,  and  winning  for  yourself  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  that  most  detestable  thing — a  male 
flirt." 

"But  really,  Mrs.  Hallam,"  interrupted  the  per- 
plexed young  man,  "  I  don't  understand " 

"  Of  course  you  don't,  and  of  course  I'm  glad  you 


A   SOCIAL   ADVANCE  131 

don't.  You'd  be  a  detestably  conceited  popinjay  if 
you  did.  But  I  do,  and  in  a  strictly  limited  way 
I'm  going  to  explain  it  to  you  for  your  own  good, 
and  as  a  warning.  I  can't  explain  it  fully  without 
treason  to  my  own  sex.  But  I'll  tell  you  this  much: 
you  have  a  singularly  pleasing,  soothing,  caressing, 
and  most  winning  manner  with  women — all  women. 
You  are  respectful — no,  that  isn't  the  word.  You 
are  courteously  gentle  and  deferential,  and  solicitous 
to  give  pleasure.  Anyhow,  you  please  women.  Then, 
again,  you  have  made  yourself  the  most  conspicuous 
young  man  in  Cairo,  and  everybody  counts  upon 
your  success  as  certain.  There,  I'm  not  going  to 
explain  further ;  I  only  warn  you." 

"But,  Mrs.  Hallam,  I  have  not  called  more  than 
twice  upon  any  one  girl,  and " 

"Well,  don't.     That's  all  I've  got  to  say." 

Duncan  went  away  puzzled.  He  had  intended  to 
be  very  shrewd  and  circumspect  in  this  matter.  He 
had  intended,  by  calling  once  or  twice  upon  each  of 
several  young  women,  to  deprive  the  calls  he  in- 
tended to  make  upon  Barbara  of  any  look  of  signifi- 
cance, and  now,  before  he  had  even  begun  to  culti- 
vate acquaintance  with  Barbara,  he  found  his  small 
preparatory  callings  the  subject  of  curiosity  and 
gossip. 

He  was  resolved  not  to  be  balked  of  his  purpose, 
however.  He  saw  no  reason  to  permit  that.  He 
would  go  that  very  evening  to  see  Barbara,  and  he 


132         rA  CAPTAIN  IN   THE   RANKS 
would  repeat  the  visit  from  time  to  time,  until  a 
fuller  acquaintance  with  the  girl  should  cure  him  of 
his  fascination.     Acquaintance  must  do  that,  he  was 
persuaded. 

He  carried  out  his  part  of  the  program  reso- 
lutely. If  the  results  were  not  precisely  what 
he   expected,   and   intended,  the   fault   was   not   his 


own. 


Barbara  Verne  was  not  accustomed  to  receive  visits 
from  young  men.  She  was  almost  too  young,  for  one 
thing,  or,  at  least,  she  had  been  almost  too  young  until 
about  this  time.  Moreover,  her  life  was  unusually 
secluded.  She  devoted  all  her  time  to  her  exacting 
household  duties.  Except  that  she  attended  church 
once  each  Sunday,  she  was  never  seen  in  any  public 
place,  or  anywhere  else,  outside  of  her  aunt's  house, 
or  the  house  of  her  single  friend — Mrs.  Richards — a 
retiring  matron,  who  neither  received  company  nor 
went  out  anywhere.  These  two — the  young  girl  and 
the  middle-aged  matron — were  somewhat  more  than 
intimate  in  their  affection,  but  apart  from  this  one 
friend,  Barbara  visited  nobody.  The  young  women 
of  the  town  did  not  think  of  her,  therefore,  as  one  of 
themselves  at  all.  They  regarded  her  rather  as  a 
child  than  as  a  young  woman,  though  if  they  had 
troubled  to  think  about  the  matter,  they  would  have 
remembered  that  she  was  as  old  as  some  of  them- 
selves. 

When  Guilford  Duncan  made  his  first  call  upon 


A   SOCIAL   ADVANCE  133 

Barbara,  therefore,  that  young  person  was  very 
greatly  astonished,  but  she  was  in  no  way  embar- 
rassed. It  was  her  nature  to  meet  all  circumstances 
and  all  events  frankly,  and  to  do  with  conscientious 
faithfulness  whatsoever  she  conceived  to  be  her  duty. 
So  when  Guilford  Duncan  called  upon  her,  she 
promptly  put  away  her  surprise,  and  entered  the  little 
parlor  to  greet  him. 

She  did  not  keep  him  waiting,  and  he  specially 
liked  that.  He  was  apt  to  be  impatient  of  waiting. 
She  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  change  her  gown. 
It  was  her  habit  to  dress  with  exceeding  simplicity  and 
extreme  neatness.  She  could  not  afford  anything 
pretentious  in  dress,  and  she  would  make  no  false 
pretense.  Besides,  she  owned  no  better  gown  than 
the  one  of  French  calico,  which  she  was  already 
wearing. 

So,  without  a  minute's  wait,  Barbara  walked  into  the 
parlor  and  greeted  her  visitor,  not  without  some  lin- 
gering trace  of  surprise  at  the  honor  done  her,  but 
with  no  touch  of  foolish  embarrassment  in  her  man- 
ner. Barbara  was  simply  her  own  sweet,  natural 
self,  and  when  Duncan  went  away,  after  his  call,  the 
glamour  of  her  personality  was  more  strongly  upon 
him  than  ever. 

"She,  at  least,"  he  thought  as  he  walked  toward 
the  levee,  "  will  not  misconstrue  my  call,  as  Mrs.  Hal- 
lam  suggests.  She  is  too  womanly,  too  sincere,  too 
genuine  for    that.     I    shall    call   again    very    soon, 


134         A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE  RANKS 

though,  now  that  I  think  of  it,  she  forgot  to  ask  me 
to  do  so.  Never  mind.  I'll  manufacture  some  ex- 
cuse— oh,  by  Jove,  I  have  it!  'The  Coterie'  is  to 
give  a  fancy  dress  dance  a  week  from  to-night.  I'll 
invite  her  to  go.  I  wonder  if  she  will  accept.  I  hope 
so,  but  even  if  she  doesn't,  the  invitation  will  give  me 
ample  excuse  for  calling.  I'll  do  it  to-morrow  evening. 
I  suppose  women  need  a  little  time  to  get  ready  for 
such  functions.  Anyhow,  I'll  call  on  her  to-morrow 
evening  and  invite  her.  I  wonder  if  anybody  else  has 
anticipated  me  in  that  ?  No,  I'll  wager  not.  I  never 
heard  of  her  going  out,  or  even  of  anybody  calling 
upon  her.  Still,"  he  reflected,  as  he  mounted  to  his 
room  and  lighted  his  lamp  and  his  fire,  "  that  sort 
of  thing  might  happen."  Then,  after  a  pause :  "  I 
reckon  I'd  better  send  her  a  note  to  prepare  her. 
I'll  write  it  to-night,  and  leave  it  at  breakfast  in  the 
morning.  She  never  quits  the  kitchen  regions  while 
breakfast  is  on.  I  wonder  if  she's  as  neat,  and  trim, 
and  pretty  when  she's  making  coffee,  or  doing  what- 
ever it  is  that  they  do  to  ham,  as  she  always  is  when 
she  visits  other  parts  of  the  house?  " 

Turning,  he  locked  his  door.  That  was  a  very 
unusual  proceeding  on  his  part,  as  it  was  well  under- 
stood that  his  "  latchstring  was  always  out "  of  an 
evening,  and  the  young  men,  who  were  in  the  habit  of 
reading  in  his  room,  were  accustomed  to  open  and 
enter  at  will,  without  the  formality  of  knocking. 

A  moment  later,  some  one  confidently  turned  the 


A    SOCIAL    ADVANCE  135 

door-knob.  Instantly  Duncan  realized  the  situation 
and  came  to  his  senses.  He  abandoned  his  purpose 
of  writing  to  Barbara,  as  an  absurdity,  and  promptly 
unlocked  the  door  to  the  visitor,  making  some  sort  of 
excuse  for  his  forgetfulness  in  having  fastened  it. 

When  he  called  upon  Barbara  the  next  evening,  and 
asked  her  to  attend  the  dance  under  his  escort,  her 
astonishment  was  manifest,  in  spite  of  her  best  en- 
deavors to  conceal  it.  She  had  never  before  been 
invited  to  such  a  function,  and  she  had  not  dreamed 
of  this.  That,  however,  was  not  her  greatest 
occasion  for  surprise.  In  her  modesty  she  had  never 
thought  of  herself  as  in  any  way  the  fellow  or  equal  of 
the  other  girls  in  town,  who  were  eagerly  invited  to 
attend  everything  in  the  way  of  entertainments.  If 
any  other  young  man  in  town  had  asked  her  to  be  his 
partner  on  this  occasion,  she  would  have  regarded 
the  occurrence  as  a  surprising  one;  to  be  asked  by 
Guilford  Duncan  was  more  astonishing  than  all.  She 
knew  the  high  place  he  had  won  for  himself  in  Cairo. 
She  knew  that  he  was  everywhere  regarded  as  alto- 
gether the  superior  of  all  the  other  young  men  in- 
tellectually, morally,  socially,  and  in  all  other  ways. 
She  regarded  him  as  an  aristocrat  among  men,  a 
man  who  had  always  held  aloof  from  the  society 
around  him,  as  if  it  were  quite  unworthy  of  his 
attention.  She  had  woman's  instinct  enough,  too,  to 
know  how  greatly  honored  any  other  girl  in  the  city 
would  feel  if  asked  by  him  to  any  function.     The 


136         A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

fact  that  he  had  asked  her  instead  of  some  other,  puz- 
zled her  almost  to  bewilderment. 

At  first  she  gave  him  no  answer.  She  was  obviously 
thinking,  and  Duncan  let  her  think  on.  He  thought 
she  looked  exceedingly  pretty  while  thinking.  He 
observed  a  slight  puckering  of  her  forehead  at  the 
time,  which  seemed  to  him  to  add  interest  to  her  face. 
After  a  little  she  aid: 

"  Thank  you,  Mr.  Duncan,  for  your  invitation.  I 
am  more  pleased  with  it  than  I  can  say.  But  I  think 
I  must  ask  you  to  excuse  me.  I  think  I  can't  possi- 
bly go  to  the  dance." 

"May  I  ask  why  not?  Do  you  not  care  for 
dancing  and  society  ?  " 

"Oh,  I  care  very  much — or,  rather,"  she  added, 
with  scrupulous  fidelity  to  truth — "  I  should  care 
very  much  to  attend  this  party — I  should  enjoy  it 
more  than  anything,  but " 

"Will  you  think  me  impertinent,"  Duncan  asked, 
when  she  thus  stopped  in  the  middle  of  her  sentence, 
"will  you  think  me  impertinent  if  I  ask  you  what 
comes  after  that  word  c  but  ? ' " 

"  Oh,  I  think  you  mustn't  ask  me  that.  At  least,  I 
think  I  mustn't  answer  you." 

"Very  well,"  replied  the  young  man,  pleased  with 
the  girl's  manner,  in  spite  of  his  disappointment  over 
her  hesitation.  "  May  I  make  a  suggestion  ?  If  you 
had  simply  said  '  no  *  to  my  invitation,  of  course  I 
should  not  think  of  urging  it  upon  you.     But  what 


A   SOCIAL    ADVANCE  137 

you  have  said  shows  me  that  you  would  welcome  it,  if 
there  were  not  something  in  the  way.  Perhaps  you 
can  overcome  the  difficulty.  Will  you  not  try  ?  Will 
you  not  take  a  little  time  to  think,  and  perhaps  to 
consult  with  your  friends?" 

"  I  should  like  to,  but  that  would  be  unfair  to  you. 
It  might  deprive  you  of  an  opportunity  to  ask  some- 
one else." 

"I  shall  ask  no  one  else.  I  shall  not  attend 
the  affair  at  all,  unless  I  am  privileged  to  escort  you. 
If  I  may,  I  will  call  to-morrow  evening,  and 
every    evening,    until    you    can    give    me   your    de- 


cision." 


There  was  a  certain  masterfulness  in  his  manner 
and  utterance,  which  seemed  to  leave  no  chance  for 
further  discussion.     So  Barbara  simply  said: 

"  Very  well.  I'll  be  ready  to  answer  you  to-morrow 
evening.  I  suppose  I  am  ready  now,  but  you  wish 
me  to  wait,  and  it  shall  be  so." 

Duncan  hurriedly  took  his  leave.  Perhaps  he 
feared  that  if  he  stayed  longer,  the  girl  might  make 
her  "  no  "  a  final  one.  Otherwise  he  hoped  for  a  bet- 
ter outcome. 

When  he  had  gone,  poor  little  Bab  sat  for  a  time 
in  bewilderment.  She  still  could  not  understand  why 
such  a  man  as  Guilford  Duncan — whom  everybody  re- 
garded as  the  "  coming  man  "  in  Cairo — should  have 
chosen  her,  instead  of  some  other,  as  the  recipient  of 
his  invitation.     She  could  not  still  a  certain  fluttering 


138         A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

about  her  heart.  She  was  full  of  joy,  and  yet  she 
was  sorely  grieved  that  she  must  put  aside  what 
seemed  to  her  a  supreme  opportunity  to  be  happy  for 
a  time. 

It  was  always  her  way,  when  any  emotion  pleased 
or  troubled  her,  to  go  to  her  friend,  Mrs.  Richards, 
for  strength  and  soothing.  So,  now  she  suddenly 
sprang  up,  put  on  her  hat  and  wraps,  and  hurried  to 
her  one  friend's  home.  The  distance  was  so  small 
that  she  needed  no  escort,  particularly  as  Robert,  who 
happened  to  be  at  the  gate,  could  see  her  throughout 
the  little  journey.  And  she  knew  that  the  faithful 
negro  boy  would  wait  there  until  her  return. 

"  You  are  all  in  a  flurry,  child,"  said  her  friend,  for 
greeting.  "What  is  it  about?  Do  you  come  to  me 
for  advice,  or  sympathy,  or  consolation?" 

For  Mrs.  Richards  knew  of  Duncan's  visit,  and 
with  a  shrewd  woman's  wit  she  guessed  that  Barbara's 
disturbance  of  mind  was  in  some  way  connected  with 
that  event. 

"  No,"  answered  the  girl.  "  I  didn't  come  to  con- 
sult you — at  least  I  think  I  didn't — it  is  only  that 
something  has  happened,  and  I  want  to  tell  you 
about  it." 

"Very  well,  dear.     Go  on." 

"Oh,  it's  nothing  very  important.  I  don't  know 
why  I  feel  about  it  as  I  do,  but " 

"  Perhaps  if  you  tell  me  what  it  is,  I  may  help  you 
to  solve  your  riddles.     What  is  it?" 


A   SOCIAL   ADVANCE  139 

"  Why,  only  that  Mr.  Guilford  Duncan  has  asked 
me  to  go  with  him  to  the  party  next  week." 

"  Well,  go  on.     I  see  nothing  strange  in  that." 

"Why — don't  you  understand,  it  is  Mr.  Duncan, 
and  he  has  asked  me" 

"I  see  nothing  yet  to  wonder  at,"  calmly  replied 
her  friend.  "  Indeed,  it  seems  to  be  quite  natural.  I 
have  understood  Mr.  Duncan  to  be  a  gentleman  of  un- 
commonly good  taste.  If  he  has  made  up  his  mind 
to  attend  the  dance,  why  shouldn't  he  choose  for  his 
partner,  the  best,  the  dearest,  and  most  charming 
girl  in  the  city  ?     Of  course  you  are  going  ?  " 

"Why,  no,  of  course  I  can't.  I  told  him  so,  but 
he  urged  me  to  postpone  a  final  decision  till  to-mor- 
row evening.  I  thought  that  would  be  useless,  and 
that  the  delay  might  make  him  miss  a  chance  to  en- 
gage some  other  girl;  but  he  insisted  that  he  wasn't 
going  at  all  unless  I  would  go  with  him,  so  just 
because  he  seemed  to  wish  it,  I  promised  to  wait  till 
to-morrow  evening  before  saying  a  final  '  no.'  Some- 
how you  simply  have  to  do  what  Mr.  Duncan  wants 
you  to  do,  you  know." 

"  Mr.  Guilford  Duncan  is  rising  rapidly  in  my  esti- 
mation," answered  Barbara's  friend.  "I  have  un- 
derstood that  he  is  a  man  of  good  sense  and  good 
taste.  Obviously  he  deserves  that  high  repute. 
Your  *  no  *  must  be  *  yes,'  Bab." 
"Oh,  but  that's  impossible!" 
"I  don't  see  it." 


140         A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

"Why,  you  know  I  can't  afford  a  gown." 

"  I  still  don't  see  it.  It's  to  be  a  fancy  dress  affair, 
I  believe  ?  " 

"  Yes,  of  course." 

"Then  you  can  go  in  any  character  you  like. 
You've  your  drab-gray  dress,  and  it's  as  fresh  as  new. 
I'll  go  over  to  your  house  and  alter  it  for  you.  Thert 
with  a  white  cape  of  Bishop's  lawn,  and  a  white  cap 
and  apron,  we'll  make  you  into  the  most  charming 
little  Quaker  maiden  imaginable.  The  character  will 
just  suit  you,  because  you  suit  it.  That  matter  is 
settled.  Go  home  now  and  go  to  bed,  and  you 
mustn't  dream  of  anything  but  •  yes.' " 

So  the  good  woman  fended  off  thanks,  and  sent 
the  happy  girl  home  with  an  enhanced  sense  of  the 
value  of  friendship. 


XV 

The  Coming  Out  of  Barbara: 

THERE  was  a  flutter  throughout  the  ball- 
room when  Guilford  Duncan,  in  the  costume 
of  Hamlet,  ushered  in  Barbara  Verne,  in  her 
Quaker-maid's  dress.  The  impulses  behind  the  flut- 
ter were  various,  but  surprise  was  the  dominant 
one. 

Nobody  had  expected  the  reserved  young  Virginian 
to  attend  the  function.  Nobody  had  dreamed  of  see- 
ing Barbara  Verne  there.  Still  more  certainly,  no- 
body had  expected  Duncan  to  escort  "  the  daughter  of 
his  landlady,'"  as  one  of  the  chattering  mammas 
spitefully  called  Barbara. 

"Upon  my  word,  the  girl  is  pretty,  when  she's 
made  up  that  way,"  said  another. 

"  She  is  more  than  pretty,"  quietly  interposed  Mrs. 
Will  Hallam ;  "  she  Is  the  most  beautiful  girl  in  the 
room.  And  she  is  far  less  *  made  up '  than  any  of  the 
rest.  Her  costume  is  simplicity  itself.  I'm  glad  the 
dear  girl  is  here." 

The  gracious  lady  presently  beckoned  to  Duncan, 
who  promptly  responded.     Then  taking  some  pains 

141 


142         A   CAPTAIN  IN   THE   RANKS 

that  those  about  her  should  hear  every  word,  she 
said: 

"  Thank  you,  Duncan,  for  bringing  Barbara,  and 
my  sincerest  congratulations  on  your  good  taste.  I 
was  just  saying,  when  I  caught  your  eye,  that  she  is 
the  most  beautiful  girl  in  the  room,  and  certainly  she 
is  the  most  charming.  You  must  bring  her  to  me 
for  a  greeting  and  congratulations,  when  the  first  set 
is  over.  There  goes  the  music,  now.  Don't  stop  to 
answer  me." 

Mrs.  Hallam's  little  speech,  and  the  marked  favor 
she  showed  to  Barbara  throughout  the  evening,  rather 
stimulated,  than  checked,  the  malicious  chatter  of  the 
half  dozen  women  who  were  disposed,  on  behalf  of 
their  daughters,  to  feel  jealous  of  Bab.  But  they 
were  at  pains  that  Mrs.  Hallam  should  not  hear  them. 
For  that  lady  was  conspicuously  the  social  queen  of 
the  city  and,  gracious  as  she  was,  she  had  a  certain 
clever  way  of  making  even  her  politest  speeches  sting 
like  a  whip-lash  when  she  was  moved  to  rebuke  petty 
meanness  of  spirit. 

"What  on  earth  can  young  Duncan  mean?"  asked 
one  of  them  when  the  group  had  placed  distance 
between  themselves  and  Mrs.  Hallam,  "by  bringing 
that  girl  here?     She  isn't  in  society  at  all." 

"  I  should  say  not.  And  Duncan  is  such  an  aristo- 
crat, too." 

"Perhaps  that's  it.  Maybe  he  has  done  this  by 
way  of  showing  his  contempt  for  Cairo  society." 


THE  COMING  OUT  OF  BARBARA     143 

"  Oh,  no,"  answered  another.  "  He's  simply  amus- 
ing himself,  like  the  male  flirt  that  he  is.  He  has 
paid  marked  attention  to  half  a  dozen  lovely  girls  in 
succession,  and  now  he  brings  Barbara  Verne  here 
just  to  show  them  how  completely  he  has  dropped 
them." 

In  the  mean  while  Duncan  was  behaving  with  the 
utmost  discretion.  After  the  first  set  was  over,  he 
danced  with  one  after  another  of  the  young  women 
upon  whom  he  had  lavished  so  much  of  "  marked  at- 
tention "  as  may  be  implied  from  one,  or  at  most  two, 
formal  calls  upon  each. 

But  this  circumspection  did  not  stop  the  chatter. 

"Wonder  if  Mrs.  Hallam  means  to  take  the  girl 
up?  It  would  be  just  like  her  to  do  that,  she's  so 
fond  of  Duncan,  you  know ;  if  she  does " 

"Pardon  me,  but  unless  Mrs.  Hallam  has  placed 
her  character  in  your  hands  for  dissection,  ladies,  I 
must  ask  you  not  to  discuss  it  further." 

That  utterance  came  from  Captain  Will  Hallam, 
who  happened  to  be  standing  by  the  wall,  very  near 
the  woman  who  had  last  spoken.  It  was  like  a  thun- 
derbolt in  its  effect,  for  there  was  not  one  of  the  gos- 
sips whose  husband's  prosperity  was  not  in  some  more 
or  less  direct  way  in  Will  Hallam's  hands. 

Instantly  he  turned  and  walked  away  to  where 
Barbara  shyly  sat  in  a  corner,  while  half  a  dozen 
young  men  stood  and  talked  with  her.  For  what- 
ever the  matrons  might  think,  the  young  men  all 


144         A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

seemed  eager  for  Barbara's  favor,  and  were  making 
of  her  the  belle  of  the  evening  by  their  attentions. 

To  the  astonishment  of  all  of  them,  Hallam  asked 
Barbara  for  her  dancing  card.  Nobody  had  ever 
heard  of  the  great  man  of  business  dancing.  He 
was  middle-aged,  absorbed  in  affairs,  and  positively 
contemptuous  of  all  frivolities.  He  had  come  to  the 
party  only  to  bring  his  wife.  He  had  quickly  gone 
away  again,  and  he  had  now  returned  only  to  escort 
Mrs.  Hallam  home.  Nevertheless,  he  asked  Barbara 
for  her  card  and,  finding  it  full,  he  turned  to  Dun- 
can, saying: 

"  I  see  that  the  next  set  is  yours,  Duncan.  Won't 
you  give  it  up  to  me,  if  Miss  Barbara  permits?  " 

Half  a  minute  later  the  music  began  again  and, 
to  the  astonishment  of  the  whole  company,  Captain 
Will  Hallam  led  out  the  demure  little  Quakeress,  and 
managed  to  walk  through  a  cotillion  with  her,  with- 
out once  treading  on  her  toes. 

That  was  Captain  Will  Hallam's  way  of  emphasiz- 
ing his  displeasure  with  the  gossips,  and  marking  his 
appreciation  of  Barbara.  It  was  so  effective  as  to 
set  the  whole  feminine  part  of  the  community  talking 
for  a  week  to  come.  But  of  this  the  secluded  girl 
heard  not  a  word.  The  only  change  the  events  of 
the  evening  made  in  the  quiet  routine  of  her  life  was 
that  all  the  best  young  men  in  the  town  became  fre- 
quent callers  upon  her,  and  that  thereafter  she  was 
sure  to  receive  more  than  one  invitation  to  every  con- 


THE  COMING  OUT  OF  BARBARA     145 

cert,  dance,  or  other  entertainment,  as  soon  as  its 
occurrence  was  announced. 

But  enough  of  the  gossip  reached  Guilford  Dun- 
can's ears  to  induce  angry  resentment  and  self-asser- 
tion on  his  part. 

"  I  told  you  how  it  would  be,  Duncan,"  said  Mrs. 
Will  Hallam  to  him  not  long  afterwards.  "  But  I'm 
glad  you  did  it.  It  was  the  manly,  as  well  as  the 
kindly  thing  to  do." 

"Thank  you,"  the  young  man  answered.  "I 
mean  to  do  more  of  the  same  sort." 

He  did  not  explain.  Mrs.  Hallam  was  in  need  of 
no  explanation. 


XVI 

I 

A  New  Enemy 

IT  was   about  this   time  that   Guilford  Duncan 
managed  to  make  a  new  enemy,  and  one  more 
powerful  to  work  him  harm,  upon  occasion,  than 
all  the  rest  whom  he  had  offended. 

Napoleon  Tandy,  president  of  the  X  National 
Bank, — whose  name  had  been  first  popularly  short- 
ened to  "Nap  Tandy"  and  afterwards  extended 
again  into  "  Napper  Tandy," — was  the  only  man 
in  Cairo  who  had  enough  of  financial  strength  or 
of  creative  business  capacity  to  be  reckoned  a  rival 
of  Captain  Will  Hallam,  or  his  competitor  in  com- 
mercial enterprises. 

He  had  several  times  tried  conclusions  with  Hallam 
in  such  affairs,  but  always  with  results  distinctly  un- 
satisfactory to  himself.  Or,  as  Hallam  one  day  ex- 
plained to  Duncan,  "He  has  got  a  good  deal  of 
education  at  my  hands,  and  he  has  paid  his  tuition 
fees." 

Tandy  was  not  yet  past  middle  age,  but  he  was 
always  called  "  Old  Napper  Tandy,"  chiefly  because 

U6 


A  NEW  ENEMY  147 

of  certain  objectionable  traits  of  character  that  he 
possessed.  He  was  reputed  to  be  the  "  meanest  man 
in  Southern  Illinois."  He  was  certainly  the  hardest 
in  driving  a  bargain,  the  most  merciless  in  its  en- 
forcement. He  was  cordially  hated  and  very  greatly 
feared.  Cold,  self-possessed,  shrewd,  and  utterly 
selfish,  his  attitude  toward  his  fellow  men,  and  toward 
himself,  was  altogether  different  from  that  of  his 
greater  competitor,  Hallam.  He  felt  none  of  Hal- 
lam's  "  sporting  interest,"  as  Duncan  called  it,  in 
playing  the  game  of  commerce  and  finance.  He  was 
quick  to  see  opportunities,  and  somewhat  bold  in 
seizing  upon  them,  but  no  thought  of  popular  or 
public  benefit  to  accrue  from  his  enterprises  ever 
found  lodgment  in  his  mind.  He  had  put  a  large 
sum  of  money  into  the  Through  Line  of  freight  cars, 
but  he  had  done  so  with  an  eye  single  to  his  own  ad- 
vantage, with  no  thought  of  anything  but  dividends. 
He  had  contemptuously  called  Duncan  "a  rainbow 
chaser,"  because  that  young  man  had  spoken  with 
some  enthusiasm  of  the  benefits  which  the  cheapening 
of  freight  rates  must  bring  to  the  people  East  and 
West. 

"Well,  he  has  a  mighty  good  knack  of  catching 
his  rainbows,  anyhow,"  answered  Hallam ;  "  and  you'd 
better  not  let  the  idea  get  away  with  you  that  he 
isn't  a  force  to  be  reckoned  with.  He's  young  yet, 
and  very  new  to  business,  but  you  remember  it  was 
he  who  first  suggested  the  Through  Line,  and  worked 
it  out." 


148        A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

In  brief,  Napper  Tandy  was  a  very  greedy  money- 
getter,  and  nothing  else.  He  hated  Hallam  with 
all  that  he  had  of  heart,  because  Hallam  was  his  su- 
perior in  the  conduct  of  affairs,  and  because  Hallam 
had  so  badly  beaten  him  in  every  case  of  competitive 
effort,  and  perhaps  because  of  some  other  things. 

On  his  part,  Will  Hallam,  without  hating,  cordially 
detested  the  man  whom  he  had  thus  beaten  and  made 
afraid. 

Nevertheless,  these  two  never  quarreled.  Each  of 
them  was  too  worldly  wise  to  make  an  open  breach 
with  one  whose  co-operation  in  great  affairs  he  might 
at  any  time  need. 

"I  never  quarrel  with  a  man,"  said  Hallam  to 
Duncan,  by  way  of  explaining  the  situation.  "I 
never  quarrel  with  a  man  till  he  is  in  the  poor-house. 
So  long  as  he's  at  large  I  may  need  him  any  day.  It 
doesn't  pay  for  a  man  to  cut  off  his  own  fingers." 

So  between  these  two  there  was  always  an  outward 
semblance  of  peace,  even  when  war  was  on  between 
them,  and  it  frequently  happened  that  they  were 
closely  associated  in  enterprises  too  large  for  either 
to  conduct  so  well  alone. 

On  the  night  of  the  ball,  Hallam  took  Duncan  aside 
and  said  to  him : 

"I  wish  you'd  take  the  seven  o'clock  train  this 
morning  and  go  up  to  the  mines  for  a  few  days. 
Everything  there  seems  to  be  at  sixes  and  sevens.  I 
can't  make  head  or  tail  out  of  it  all.     All  I  know  is, 


A  NEW  ENEMY  149 

that  the  confounded  mine  is  losing  a  good  many 
thousands  of  my  dollars  every  month.  I  want  you  to 
go  up  and  make  a  thorough  investigation.  If  you 
ean't  find  a  way  out  I'll  shut  up  the  hole  in  the  ground 
and  quit." 

Captain  Hallam  knew,  of  course,  that  Duncan 
could  not  get  much  sleep  that  night,  but  he  had  long 
ago  learned  that  Guilford  Duncan  utterly  disregarded 
personal  comfort  whenever  duty  called,  and  so  he 
had  no  hesitation  in  thus  ordering  his  young  lieu- 
tenant to  take  an  early  morning  train  on  the  heels 
of  a  night  of  dancing. 

"Perhaps  you'd  better  go  up  there  with  me,"  sug- 
gested Duncan. 

"No,  that  would  embarrass  matters.  I've  been 
up  several  times,  and  I  want  you  to  bring  a  fresh 
mind  to  bear  upon  the  trouble.  I'll  telegraph  the 
people  there  to  put  everything  at  your  command.  I 
want  you  to  study  the  situation  and  make  up  your 
mind,  just  as  if  the  whole  thing  belonged  to  you. 
Part  of  it  does,  you  know,  and  more  of  it  shall,  if  you 
find  a  way  out.  If  the  thing  can  be  made  to  go, 
I'll  give  you  ten  more  of  the  hundred  shares,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  five  you  already  own.  Good-night,  and 
good-bye  till  you're  ready  to  report." 

Captain  Will  Hallam  had  recently  bought  this  coal 
mine  on  a  little  branch  railroad  in  the  interior  of 
Illinois.  He  had  not  wanted  to  buy  it,  but  had 
done  so  by  way  of  saving  a  debt.     The  mine  had  been 


150         A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

badly  constructed  at  the  beginning,  and  latterly  it 
had  been  a  good  deal  neglected.  There  were  other 
difficulties,  as  Duncan  soon  discovered,  and  the  coal 
resources  of  the  property  had  never  been  half 
developed.  In  recognition  of  his  services  in  examin- 
ing titles  and  other  matters  connected  with  the  pur- 
chase, Hallam  had  given  the  young  man  five  per 
cent,  of  the  company's  stock.  He  was  thus,  for  the 
first  time,  working  in  part  for  himself,  when  he  was 
sent  to  study  the  situation. 

Quietly,  but  insistently,  in  face  of  the  surly  oppo- 
sition of  the  superintendent,  who  was  also  styled  chief 
engineer,  Duncan  looked  into  things.  It  was  true, 
as  the  superintendent  sullenly  said,  that  this  young 
man  knew  nothing  of  coal  mining;  but  it  was  also 
true,  as  Duncan  answered,  that  he  knew  how  to  learn. 

And  he  did  learn.  He  learned  so  much  that  after 
three  or  four  days,  he  sent  a  telegram  to  Captain 
Will  Hallam,  saying: 

Give  me  a  perfectly  free  hand  here  or  call  me  home.  I 
must  have  all  the  authority  you  possess  or  I  can  be  of  no  use. 
Answer  by  telegraph. 

For  response,  Will  Hallam  telegraphed: 

Consider  yourself  the  whole  thing.  I  give  you  complete  and 
absolute  authority.  Hire  or  discharge  men  at  will.  Order 
all  improvements  you  think  best.  Draw  on  the  bank  here  for 
any  sum  you  need.    Only  make  the  thing  go  if  you  can. 

Telegraphing  was  much  more  expensive  in  those 


A  NEW  ENEMY  151 

days — forty  years  ago — than  it  is  now.  And  yet  in 
neither  of  these  dispatches  was  there  any  seeming 
effort  to  spare  words.  That  was  Captain  Will  Hal- 
lam's  rule  and  practice.  His  frequent  instruction  to 
all  his  subordinates  ran  somewhat  in  this  wise: 

'  "  Never  save  a  word  in  telegraphing  at  the  risk  of 
being  misunderstood.  Mistakes  are  the  most  costly 
luxuries  that  a  man  can  indulge  in.  Never  forget 
that  we  live  in  the  Nineteenth  Century." 

In  that  spirit  Captain  Will  sent  a  dozen  other 
telegrams  that  day,  addressed  to  all  the  different  men 
at  the  mines  who  had  even  the  mallest  pretension  to 
authority.     In  each  of  them  he  said : 

Guilford  Duncan  represents  me  fully  and  absolutely.  His 
authority  is  unlimited.  Obey  him  or  quit.  Obey  him  with 
all  good  will.  Help  him  if  you  can,  and  in  every  way  you  can. 
There  must  be  no  interference,  no  kicking,  no  withholding  of 
information.    These  are  orders. 

Thus  armed,  Duncan  set  to  work  in  earnest. 

"Why  isn't  your  output  of  coal  larger  than  it  is?" 
he  asked  of  Davidson,  the  superintendent. 

"  I  can't  make  it  larger  under  the  circumstances." 

"What  are  the  circumstances?  What  difficulties 
are  there  in  the  way?  You  have  miners  enough, 
surely." 

"  Well,  for  one  thing,  the  mine  is  badly  ventilated. 
Many  of  the  best  galleries  are  filled  with  choke-damp, 
and  must  be  kept  closed." 

"Why    don't   you   improve   the   ventilation?     As 


152         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

an  engineer  you  ought  to  know  how  to  do  that 
much." 

"  It  isn't  feasible,  as  you  would  know,  Mr.  Duncan, 
if  you  knew  anything  about  mining." 

"  Oh,  never  mind  my  ignorance.  It  is  your  knowl- 
edge that  I'm  concerned  about  just  now.  Do  I 
understand  you  to  say  that  a  mine  lying  only  seventy- 
five  feet  or  so  below  the  surface  cannot  be  ven- 
tilated?" 

"  I  suppose  it  might  be  if  the  business  could  afford 
the  expense." 

"The  business  can  and  will  afford  any  expense 
that  may  be  necessary  to  make  it  pay.  If  you  know 
enough  of  engineering  to  devise  a  practicable  plan 
for  ventilating  the  mine,  I'll  furnish  you  all  the 
money  you  need  to  carry  it  out." 

He  had  it  in  mind  to  add :  "  If  you  don't  know 
enough  for  that,  I'll  find  a  more  competent  engineer," 
but  he  kept  his  temper  and  refrained. 

"  Twouldn't  be  of  any  use,"  answered  Davidson, 
after  a  moment.  "We're  producing  more  coal  now 
than  we  can  market." 

"How  is  that?  I  don't  understand.  Your  order 
book — which  I  looked  over  to-day — shows  orders  a  full 
month  ahead  of  shipments,  besides  many  canceled 
orders,  countermanded  because  not  filled  promptly 
enough  to  satisfy  the  customers.  You're  superin- 
tendent as  well  as  engineer.  I  wish  you'd  try  to  clear 
up  this  puzzle." 


A  NEW  ENEMY  153 

"Oh,  it's  simple  enough.  The  railroad  people 
won't  furnish  us  cars  enough.  I  could  ship  a  hundred 
carloads  to-morrow  if  I  had  the  cars,  but  I  haven't 
got  'em,  and  I  can't  get  'em." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  you  are  offering  coal  as  freight 
to  this  railroad,  and  the  road  is  refusing  it?" 

"Yes,  that's  about  it.  I've  asked  for  cars  and 
can't  get  'em,  except  a  few  each  day." 

"Do  the  other  mines  along  this  little  branch  rail- 
road have  the  same  trouble?" 

"  There  is  only  one  other  mine  on  this  line." 

"  Well,  does  it  encounter  the  same  difficulty  in  mar- 
keting its  coal?" 

"No — at  least  not  to  so  great  an  extent.  You 
see  somebody  there  is  standing  in  with  the  railroad 
people.  I  suppose  they've  had  a  little  block  of  stock 
given  to  them — the  railroad  people,  I  mean.  So  the 
Quentin  mines  get  all  the  cars  they  want,  and  we  get 
only  their  leavings." 

"Well,  now,  Mr.  Davidson,  I  give  you  this  order: 
Set  to  work  at  once  and  bring  out  every  ton  of  coal 
you've  got  ready  in  the  mine.  There'll  be  cars  here 
to  haul  it  when  you  get  it  ready.  Good-night,  Mr. 
Davidson.  I'll  talk  with  you  another  time  about  the 
other  matters.  I  have  a  good  deal  to  do  to-night,  so 
I  can't  talk  further  with  you  now." 

Davidson  went  out  after  a  grudging  "  good-night." 
Duncan  did  not  yet  know  or  suspect,  though  he  was 
presently  to  find  out,  that  to  Davidson,  also,  the  pro- 


154         A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

prietors  of  the  rival  mine  were  paying  a  little  tribute, 
as  a  reward  for  silence  and  for  making  trouble. 

Duncan  sat  for  an  hour  writing  letters.  The  type- 
writing machine  had  not  been  invented  at  that  time, 
and  even  if  it  had  been  Duncan  would  have  preferred 
to  write  these  letters  himself. 

One  of  them  was  addressed  to  the  General  Freight 
Agent  of  the  little  railroad  on  which  the  mine  was 
situated.     It  read  as  follows : 

Within  six  days  I  shall  have  one  hundred  car  loads  of  coal 
at  the  mouth  of  this  mine,  ready  for  shipment  upon  orders. 
After  that  time  I  shall  have  about  sixty  car  loads  ready  for 
shipment  each  day.  Please  see  to  it  that  an  adequate  supply 
of  cars  to  move  this  freight  are  side-tracked  here  on  time. 

Duncan  signed  that  letter  with  all  needed  circum- 
spection.    The  signature  read : 

For  the  Redwood  Coal  and  Iron  Company;  Guilford  Dun- 
can, Manager  and  Attorney  at  Law  and  in  Fact  for  the 
Company. 

That  subscription  was  intended  as  an  intimation. 

When  on  the  next  afternoon  the  General  Freight 
Agent,  who  had  several  times  met  Duncan  at  Captain 
Hallam's  house,  read  the  letter,  his  attention  was  at 
once  attracted — precisely  as  Guilford  Duncan  had  in- 
tended that  it  should  be,  by  the  elaborate  formality 
of  the  signature. 

"  So  Hallam's  got  that  smart  young  man  of  his  at 
work,  has  he  ?  "  the  Freight  Agent  muttered.     "  Well, 


A  NEW  ENEMY  155 

we'll  see  what  we  can  do  with  him  "  But  he  deliber- 
ately waited  till  nine  o'clock  that  night  before 
responding.  Then  opening  the  telegraph  key  at  his 
elbow,  he  called  Duncan,  and  Duncan,  who  had 
learned  telegraphing,  as  he  had  learned  many  other 
things,  as  a  part  of  his  equipment  for  work,  promptly 
went  to  his  key  and  answered  the  call.  The  General 
Freight  Agent  spelled  but  this  message : 

"Simply  impossible  to  furnish  cars  you  ask. 
Haven't  got  them." 

Duncan  responded: 

"  The  Quentin  mine  gets  all  cars  needed.  We  de- 
mand our  share  and  I  shall  insist  upon  the  demand." 

The  reply  came : 

"  I  tell  you  we  can't  do  it.  I'll  run  down  to  your 
place  to-morrow  or  next  day  and  explain." 

"  Don't  want  explanations,"  answered  Duncan.  "  I 
want  the  cars." 

"  But  we  simply  can't  furnish  them." 

"  But  you  simply  must." 

"What  if  I  refuse?" 

"  Then  I'll  adopt  other  measures.  But  you  won't 
refuse." 

"Why  not?" 

"Because  I  know  too  much,"  answered  Duncan. 
"  I  shall  send  to  you  by  special  messenger,  on  the  train 
that  will  pass  here  within  an  hour,  a  letter  making  a 
formal  tender  of  the  freight.  I  make  that  tender  by 
telegraph  now,  and  you  may  as  well  accept  it  in  that 


156         rA   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

way.  Your  road  is  a  chartered  common  carrier. 
Your  lawyers  will  advise  you  that  you  cannot  refuse 
freight  formally  tendered  to  you  for  carriage,  un- 
less you  can  show  an  actual  inability;  in  that  case 
you  must  show  that  you  are  doing  your  best  by  all 
shippers  alike;  that  you  are  treating  them  with  an 
equal  hand.  You  perfectly  well  know  you  are  not 
doing  that.  You  know  you  have  cars  in  plenty.  You 
know  you  are  deliberately  discriminating  against  this 
mine,  and  in  favor  of  its  rival.  I  make  formal 
demand,  on  behalf  of  the  company  I  represent,  for 
all  cars  needed  for  the  shipment  of  this  freight.  If 
they  are  not  forthcoming,  as  you  say  they  will  not 
be,  I  give  notice  that  I  will  dump  the  coal  by  the  side 
of  your  loading  side-track  and  leave  it  there  at  your 
risk.  Good-night."  And  Duncan  shut  off  the  tele- 
graph instrument  and  devoted  himself  to  the  prepara- 
tion of  his  letter  of  demand. 

It  should  be  explained  that  the  young  man  was  not 
"  making  a  bluff  " — in  the  figurative  phrase  of  that 
time  and  country — when  he  telegraphed  in  this  way 
to  the  General  Freight  Agent.  He  had  his  facts  well 
in  hand.  As  soon  as  Davidson's  intimation  had  come 
to  him  to  the  effect  that  the  railroad  officials  were 
"  standing  in "  with  the  proprietors  of  the  Quentin 
mine,  he  had  telegraphed  for  Joe  Arnold  to  come  to 
him  by  a  train  that  would  arrive  at  midnight.  Joe 
Arnold  was  a  detective  of  rare  gifts  and,  incidentally, 
a  reporter  on  a  Chicago  newspaper.     Captain  Will 


A  NEW  ENEMY  157 

Hallam  often  had  occasion  to  employ  Joe,  and  thus 
Duncan  had  come  into  acquaintance  with  the  young 
man's  peculiar  abilities  for  finding  out  things.  Joe 
Arnold  had  an  innocent,  incurious,  almost  stupid 
countenance  that  suggested  a  chronic  desire  for  sleep 
rather  than  any  more  alert  characteristic.  He  had 
a  dull,  uninterested  way  of  asking  questions  which 
suggested  the  impulse  of  a  vacuous  mind  to  "keep 
the  talk  going,"  rather  than  any  desire  to  secure  the 
information  asked  for.  Indeed,  when  he  asked  a 
question  and  it  was  not  promptly  answered,  he 
always  hastened  to  say : 

"  Oh,  it's  of  no  consequence,  and  it's  none  of  my 

business." 

But  before  he  quitted  the  presence  of  the  man  to 
whom  the  question  had  been  put,  Joe  Arnold  usually 
had  his  answer. 

To  this  man,  when  he  came  by  the  midnight  train, 

Duncan  said: 

"  I  must  know  who  are  the  stockholders  in  the  Quen- 
tin  mine— both  those  of  record  and  those  whose  names 
do  not  appear  on  the  stock  books.  If  possible  I  must 
know  also  what  each  stockholder  actually  paid  for  his 
shares.  You  must  hurry.  I  must  have  this  infor- 
mation by  noon  to-morrow.  You'll  need  to  use  money 
perhaps.  Here's  stake  for  expenses.  Come  back  on 
the  noon  train  to-morrow." 

And  Joe  Arnold  came  back,  bringing  with  him  quite 
all  the  information  that  Guilford  Duncan  wanted,  and 


158         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

considerably  more.  For  he  brought  with  him  trans- 
cripts of  all  the  correspondence  that  had  passed  be- 
tween the  railroad  people  and  the  mine  proprietors, 
including  a  dispatch  which  the  General  Freight  Agent 
had  sent  a  little  after  midnight  that  morning  to 
Napoleon  Tandy,  saying: 

Hallam  has  got  that  sharp  young  fellow  Duncan  at  work  and, 
as  you  are  aware,  he  knows  his  business  and  his  rights.  I'm 
afraid  he'll  make  a  formal  proffer  of  freight  and  a  demand 
for  cars.  I  wish  you  could  come  here,  but  of  course  you  can't 
so  long  as  you  wish  your  stockholdings  in  that  mine  down  there 
and  your  relations  with  us  to  be  kept  secret.  Please  telegraph 
any  instructions  you  may  wish. 

That  dispatch,  of  course,  had  been  sent  not  from 
the  mines,  but  from  the  General  Freight  Agent's  office 
in  another  town.  But  there  were  always  men  in  those 
days  who  were  deeply  interested  to  learn  what  was 
going  on  among  the  masters  of  finance,  and  one  of 
these  over-curious  ones  was  a  certain  telegraph 
operator.  It  was  his  practice  to  take  off  the  wires 
whatever  dispatches  there  might  be  passing  between 
Napper  Tandy  and  the  railroad  people. 

Thus  it  came  about  that  Joe  Arnold  brought  to 
Guilford  Duncan  a  mass  of  accurate  and  detailed 
information  which  enabled  him  to  take  the  high  hand 
in  his  telegraphic  controversy  with  the  General 
Freight  Agent,  when  that  person,  late  in  the  even- 
ing, called  him  up  on  the  wire  in  answer  to  his  letter, 
received  the  night  before.     Thus  was  Duncan  armed, 


A  NEW  ENEMY  159 

cap-a-pie,  for  the  telegraphic  controversy.  And  thus 
it  came  about  that  during  the  next  six  days  there  were 
a  hundred  cars  shunted  to  Redwood  side-tracks,  where 
they  were  rapidly  loaded  with  the  coal  output  of  the 
Redwood  mine. 


XVII 

An  Old  Friend 

FROM  that  hour  forth  the  Redwood  mine  became 
a  paying  property  and,  as  Guilford  Duncan 
liked  to  think,  one  which  was  contributing  its 
share  to  the  public  benefit  and  the  welfare  of  the 
people. 

But  Duncan's  work  there  had  only  begun.  Having 
solved  the  problem  of  shipping  coal  as  fast  as  the 
miners  could  dig  it,  he  gave  his  attention  next  to  the 
equally  pressing  problem  of  increasing  output.  In 
the  solution  of  that  a  great  help  unexpectedly  came 
to  him. 

He  was  sitting  late  one  night  over  the  books  and 
correspondence,  when,  near  midnight,  a  miner  sought 
speech  with  him. 

He  bade  the  man  enter  and,  without  looking  up 
from  the  papers  he  was  studying,  asked  him  to  take 
a  seat.  Still  without  taking  his  eyes  from  the  papers, 
he  presently  asked  of  the  man,  who  had  not  accepted 
the  invitation  to  sit: 

"Well,  sir,  what  can  I  do  for  you?" 

160 


AN  OLD  FRIEND  161 

"Nothing,"  answered  the  man.  "I  came  to  serve 
you,  not  to  ask  service." 

The  voice  seemed  familiar  to  Duncan — almost 
startlingly  familiar.  He  instantly  looked  up  and 
exclaimed : 

"Why,  it's  Dick  Temple!" 

"Yes,"  answered  the  other.  "You  and  I  quar- 
reled very  bitterly  once.  The  quarrel  was  a  very 
foolish  one — on  my  side." 

"  And  on  mine,  too !  "  responded  Duncan,  grasping 
his  former  enemy's  hand.  "  Let  us  forget  it,  and  be 
friends." 

"  With  all  my  heart.  .  It  was  in  that  spirit  that  I 
came  hither  to-night — I  want  to  render  you  a  ser- 
vice." 

Meanwhile  Duncan  had  almost  forced  the  miner 
into  a  chair. 

"  Tell  me,"  he  said,  "  how  is  it  that  you * 

"That  I'm  a  miner?  You  think  of  me  as  an 
educated  engineer,  eh?  Well,  that's  a  long  story  and 
not  at  all  so  sad  a  one  as  you  might  suppose.  I'll  tell 
you  all  about  it  at  another  time.  But  it  can  wait, 
while  there  are  some  other  things  that  should  be  said 
now — things  that  vitally  affect  the  affairs  you  have 
in  charge." 

"It  is  very  good  of  you  to  come  to  me  with  sug- 
gestions, and  they  will  be  very  welcome,  I  assure  you, 
and  very  helpful,  I've  no  doubt.  For  I  have  faith  in 
your  skill  as  an  engineer." 


162         A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

"My  skill  still  remains  to  be  proved,"  answered 
the  other  with  the  merest  touch  of  sadness  in  his  utter- 
ance. "  But,  at  any  rate,  I've  had  the  very  best  en- 
gineering education  that  the  schools  can  give.  Never 
mind  that — and  never  mind  me.  I  didn't  come  here 
to  talk  of  myself.  I  want  to  talk  to  you  about  this 
mine." 

"  Good.  That  is  what  I  am  here  for.  Go  on." 
"Well,  everything  here  is  wrong.  With  your 
readiness  of  perception  you  must  have  seen  that  for 
yourself.  With  the  general  management  I  have 
nothing  to  do.  I'm  only  one  of  the  miners.  But 
there  is  a  problem  of  ventilation  here  that  ought 
to  be  solved,  and  I  have  come  simply  to  offer  a  solu- 
tion, in  the  interest  of  the  company  that  pays  my 
wages  and  still  more  in  the  interest  of  the  miners. 
Two  of  them  were  killed  by  choke-damp  a  little  while 
ago,  four  of  them  are  now  ill  from  the  same  cause, 
while  all  of  them  are  earning  less  than  they  should 
because  the  best  and  most  easily  accessible  headings 
are  closed." 

"  Is  there  any  very  serious  difficulty  involved  in  the 
problem  of  ventilating  the  mine?" 

"None   whatever — at   least    no    engineering    diffi- 
culty." 

"Just  what  do  you  mean?" 

"  I  prefer  not  to  say." 

"Perhaps  I  can  guess,"  said  Duncan.  -  "I  have 
myself  discovered  a  very  serious  difficulty  in  the  per- 


AN  OLD  FRIEND  163 

sonal  equation  of  Mr.  Davidson.  He  does  not  want 
to  ventilate  the  mine — he  has  his  own  reasons,  of 
course.  That  difficulty  shall  no  longer  stand  in  the 
way.  I  shall  eliminate  it  at  once.  Go  on,  please, 
and  tell  me  of  the  engineering  problem." 

"  It  scarcely  amounts  to  a  problem.  The  mine  lies 
only  about  seventy-five  feet  below  the  surface.  At  its 
extreme  extension  the  depth  is  considerably  less,  be- 
cause of  a  surface  depression  there.  What  I  sug- 
gest is  this:  Dig  a  shaft  at  the  extreme  end,  thus 
making  a  second  opening,  and  pass  air  freely  through 
the  mine  from  the  one  opening  to  the  other.  The 
cost  will  be  a  mere  trifle." 

"  But  will  the  air  pass  through  in  that  way  ?  " 
"Not  without  help.     But  we  can  easily  give  it 
help." 

"How?  Go  on.  Explain  your  plan  fully." 
"Well,  we  have  here  three  or  four  of  those  big 
fans  that  the  government  had  made  for  the  purpose 
of  ventilating  the  engine  rooms  and  stoke  holes  of  its 
ironclads.  They  utterly  failed  and  were  sold  as 
junk.  Captain  Hallam  bought  a  lot  of  them  at  the 
price  of  scrap  iron,  and  sent  them  out  here.  David- 
son tried  one  of  them  and  reported  utter  failure  as  a 
result.  The  failure  was  natural  enough,  both  in  the 
case  of  the  ironclads  and  in  that  of  the  mine." 
"How  so?" 

"  Why,  in  both  cases  an  attempt  was  made  to  force 
air  down  into  spaces  already  filled  with  an  atmosphere 


164         A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

denser  than  that  above.  That  was  absurdly  impossi- 
ble, as  any  engineer  not  an  idiot  should  have  known." 

"And  yet  you  think  you  can  use  these  fans  suc- 
cessfully in  ventilating  the  mine?" 

"I  do  not  think — I  know.  If  Mr.  Davidson  will 
permit  me  to  explain " 

"Never  mind  Davidson.  If  this  experiment  is  to 
be  tried  you  shall  yourself  be  the  man  to  try  it.  Go 
on,  please." 

"  But,  Duncan,  I  simply  mustn't  be  known  in  the 
matter  at  all." 

"Why  not?" 

"  I  have  a  wife  to  care  for.  I  can't  afford  to  be 
discharged.  Besides,  the  miners  like  me  and  they 
think  they  have  grievances  against  Davidson.  If  he 
were  to  discharge  me — as  he  certainly  would  if  I  were 
to  appear  in  this  matter — the  whole  force  would  go  on 
strike,  no  matter  how  earnestly  I  might  plead  with 
them  not  to  do  so.  I  don't  want  that  to  happen.  It 
would  be  an  ill  return  to  the  company  that  gave  me 
wages  when  it  was  a  question  of  wages  or  starvation 
with  me.  Worse  still,  it  would  mean  poverty  and  suf- 
fering to  all  the  miners  and  all  their  helpless  wives  and 
children.  No,  Duncan,  I  must  not  be  known  in  this 
matter,  or  have  anything  to  do  with  the  execution  of 
the  plans  I  suggest.  I  want  you  to  treat  them  as 
your  own;  suggest  them  to  Davidson,  and  persuade 
him  to  carry  them  out.  In  that  way  all  of  good  and 
nothing  of  harm  will  be  done." 


AN  OLD  FRIEND  165 

"  Why,  then,  haven't  you  suggested  your  plans  to 
Davidson  ?  " 

"I  have,  and  he  has  scornfully  rejected  them. 
Coming  from  you  he  may  treat  them  with  a  greater 
respect." 

"  Now,  before  we  go  any  further,  Dick — for  I  like 
to  call  you  by  the  old  nickname  that  alone  I  knew 
before  our  foolish  quarrel  came  to  separate  us — be- 
fore we  go  any  further,  let  me  explain  to  you  that  I 
am  absolute  master  here.  My  word  is  law,  to  Mr. 
Davidson  as  completely  and  as  absolutely  as  to  the 
old  fellow  who  scrubs  out  this  office — or  doesn't  scrub 
it,  for  it's  inexcusably  dirty.  Davidson  can  no  more 
discharge  you  than  he  can  discharge  me.  I  don't 
know  yet  what  I  shall  do  with  Davidson.  But  at 
any  rate  he  has  no  longer  the  power  to  discharge  you, 
so  you  need  have  no  fear  in  that  direction.  Go  on, 
now,  and  tell  me  how  you  purpose  to  ventilate  the 
mine.     I'm  mightily  interested." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Temple.  "My  plan  is  per- 
fectly simple.  You  can't  force  air  down  into  a  mine 
with  any  pump  that  was  ever  invented,  or  any  pump 
that  ever  will  be  devised  by  human  ingenuity.  But 
you  can  easily  and  certainly  draw  air  out  of  a  mine. 
And  when  there  are  two  openings  to  the  mine — one  at 
either  end — if  you  draw  air  out  at  one  end  fresh  air 
will  of  itself  rush  in  at  the  other  end  to  take  its  place. 
My  plan  is  to  sink  a  shaft  at  the  farther  end  of  the 
mine,  and  to  build  an  air-tight  box  at  the  surface 


166        A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

opening,  completely  closing  it,  except  for  an  out- 
flow pipe.  Then  I  shall  put  one  of  the  big  ironclad 
fans  into  that  box  upside  down.  When  it  is  set  spin- 
ing  it  will  suck  air  out  of  the  mine,  and  fresh  air  will 
rush  in  at  the  main  shaft  to  take  the  place  of  the 
air  removed." 

Duncan  was  intensely  interested.  Very  eagerly  he 
bent  forward  as  he  asked: 

"  You  are  confident  of  success  in  this  ?  " 

"  More  than  confident.     I'm  sure.  " 

"Quite  sure?" 

"More  than  quite  sure;  I'm  absolutely  certain. 
I've  tried  it." 

"Tried  it?     How?" 

"I've  reconstructed  the  mine  in  miniature.  I've 
made  a  little  fan  whose  suction  capacity  is  in  exact 
proportion  to  that  of  the  big  fan  which  I  propose 
to  use  in  the  mine.  I  have  fully  experimented,  and 
I  tell  you  now,  Guilford  Duncan,  that  if  you  permit 
me  to  carry  out  the  plan,  I'll  create  a  breeze  in  that 
mine  which  will  compel  you  to  hold  on  to  your  hat 
whenever  you  go  into  the  galleries." 

Duncan  rarely  showed  excitement.  When  he  did 
so,  it  was  in  ways  peculiar  to  himself.  At  this  point 
he  rose  to  his  feet,  and  with  an  unusually  slow  and 
careful  enunciation,  said: 

"Go  to  work  at  this  job  early  to-morrow  morning, 
Dick — or  this  morning,  rather,  for  it  is  now  one 
o'clock.     Your  wife  is  Mary,  of  course?" 


AN  OLD  FRIEND  167 

There  was  a  choking  sound  in  Duncan's  voice  as 
he  uttered  the  words. 

"  Yes,  of  course,"  answered  the  other,  instinctively 
grasping  Duncan's  hand  and  pressing  it  in  warm 
sympathy. 

"Will  you  bear  her  a  message  from  me?" 

"  Yes,  any  message  you  are  moved  to  send." 

"Tell  her  that  Guilford  Duncan  has  appointed 
you  sole  engineer  of  these  mines,  with  full  salary,  and 
that  if  you  succeed  in  the  task  you  have  undertaken, 
a  far  better  salary  awaits  you." 

Temple  hesitated  a  moment  and  at  last  resumed  his 
seat  before  answering.     Then  he  said: 

"  This  is  very  generous  of  you.  I  will  go  to  her 
now,  and  deliver  your  message.  She  will  be  very 
glad.  She  was  in  doubt  as  to  how  you  would  receive 
me.  But  may  I  come  back?  Late  as  it  is,  I  have  a 
good  deal  more  to  say  to  you — about  the  mine,  of 
course.  You  and  I  used  often  to  talk  all  night,  in  the 
old  days,  long  ago,  before — well  before  we  quarreled." 

"Go!"  answered  Duncan  with  emotion.  "Go! 
Tell  Mary  what  I  have*  said.  Then  come  back.  One 
night's  sleep,  more  or  less,  doesn't  matter  much  to 
healthy  men  like  you  and  me." 


XVIII 

Dick  Temple's  Plans 

WHEN  Richard  Temple  returned  to  the  office 
of  the  mining  company,  his  always  cheerful 
face  was  rippling  with  a  certain  look  of 
gladness  that  told  its  own  story  of  love  and  devotion. 
Had  he  not  borne  good  tidings  to  Mary?  Had  he 
not,  for  the  first  time  in  months,  been  able  to  stand 
before  her  in  another  character  than  that  of  a  work- 
ing miner,  and  to  offer  her  some  better  promise  of  the 
future  than  she  had  known  before  ? 

Not  that  Mary  ever  thought  of  her  position  as  one 
unworthy  of  her  womanhood,  not  that  she  had  ever 
in  her  innermost  heart  allowed  herself  to  lament  the 
poverty  she  shared  with  him,  or  to  reproach  him  with 
the  obscurity  into  which  her  life  with  him  had  brought 
her.  Richard  Temple  knew  perfectly  that  no  shadow 
of  disloyalty  had  ever  fallen  upon  Mary  Temple's 
soul.  He  knew  her  for  a  wife  of  perfect  type  who, 
having  married  him  "for  better  or  for  worse,"  had 
only  rejoicing  in  her  loving  heart  that  she  had  been 
able  to  accept  the  "  worse  "  when  it  came,  to  make  the 


DICK    TEMPLE'S    PLANS  169 

"  better  "  of  it,  and  to  help  him  with  her  devotion  at  a 
time  when  he  had  most  sorely  needed  help. 

He  knew  that  his  Mary  was  not  only  content,  but 
happy  in  the  miner's  hut  which  had  been  her  only 
home  since  her  marriage,  and  which,  with  loving 
hands,  she  had  glorified  into  something  better  to  the 
soul  than  any  palace  is  where  love  is  not. 

O,  good  women!  All  of  you!  How  shall  men 
celebrate  enough  your  devotion,  your  helpfulness, 
your  loyalty,  and  your  love?  How  shall  men  ever 
repay  the  debt  they  owe  to  wifehood  and  motherhood? 
How  shall  civilization  itself  sufficiently  honor  the 
womanhood  that  alone  has  made  it  possible? 

But  while  Richard  Temple  knew  that  there  was 
never  a  murmur  at  her  lot  in  Mary's  heart  any  more 
than  there  was  complaining  upon  her  lips,  he  knew 
also  how  earnestly  she  longed  for  a  better  place  in  the 
world  for  him,  how  intensely  ambitious  she  was  that 
he  should  find  fit  opportunity  and  make  the  most  of 
it  in  the  way  of  winning  that  recognition  at  the  hands 
of  men  which  her  loving  soul  knew  to  be  his  right  and 
his  due. 

It  was  with  gladness,  therefore,  that  he  had  gone 
to  her  after  midnight  with  his  news.  It  was  with  joy 
that  he  had  wakened  her  out  of  her  sleep  and  told  her 
of  the  good  that  had  come  to  him. 

She  wept  as  she  sat  there  on  the  side  of  her  bed 
and  listened  while  the  moonlight,  sifting  through  the 
vines  that  she  had  trained  up  over  the  window  of  the 


170        A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

miner's  hut,  cast  a  soft  fleecy  veil  over  her  person,  in 
which  Temple  thought  an  angel  might  rejoice.  But 
her  tears  were  not  born  of  sorrow.  They  were  tears 
of  exceeding  joy,  and  if  a  drop  or  two  slipped  in 
sympathy  from  the  strong  man's  eyes  and  trickled 
down  his  cheeks,  he  had  no  cause  to  be  ashamed. 

When  he  re-entered  the  company's  office,  Temple 
stood  for  a  moment,  unable  to  control  the  emotion  he 
had  brought  away  from  Mary's  bedside.  When  at 
last  he  regained  mastery  of  himself,  he  took  Dun- 
can's hand  and,  pressing  it  warmly,  delivered  Mary's 
message : 

"  Mary  bids  me  say,  God  bless  you,  Guilford  Dun- 
can. She  bids  me  say  that  two  weeks  ago  to-night  a 
son  was  born  to  us;  that  he  has  been  nameless  hith- 
erto; but  that  to-night,  before  I  left,  she  took  him 
from  his  cradle  and  named  him  Guilford  Duncan 
Temple." 

It  is  very  hard  for  two  American  men  to  meet  an 
emotional  situation  with  propriety.  They  cannot 
embrace  each  other  as  women,  and  Frenchmen,  and 
Germans  do,  and  weep;  a  handclasp  is  all  of  demon- 
stration that  they  permit  themselves.  For  the  rest, 
they  are  under  bond  to  propriety  to  maintain  as  com- 
monplace and  as  unruffled  a  front  as  stoicism  can 
command.  So,  after  Guilford  Duncan  had  choked 
out  the  words :  "  Thank  you,  old  fellow,  and  thank 
Mary,"  he  turned  to  the  table,  pushed  forward  the 
pipes  and  tobacco,  and  said : 


DICK   TEMPLE'S    PLANS  171 

"  Let's  have  a  smoke." 

•  «i  •  •  ■• 

"  Now  tell  me  the  rest  of  it,"  said  Duncan,  after  the 
pipes  were  set  going.     "  About  the  mine,  I  mean." 

"  Well,  it  all  seems  simple.  There  are  two  hundred 
and  seventy  blind  mules  in  the  mine " 

"  Blind?     What  do  you  mean?  " 

"  Blind ;  yes.  Not  one  of  them  has  seen  the  light 
of  day  since  he  entered  the  mine,  and  some  of  them 
have  been  there  for  more  than  a  dozen  years.  Living 
always  in  the  dark,  they  have  lost  the  power  to  see." 

"  Go  on.     What  were  you  going  to  say  ?  " 

"Why,  that  those  mules  represent  an  investment 
of  twenty  or  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  all  abso- 
lutely needless.  Their  use  involves  also  a  wholly  un- 
necessary expense  for  stablemen,  feed,  and  general 
care,  while  the  yearly  deaths  among  them  add  heavily 
to  the  profit  and  loss  account,  on  the  loss  side.  Not 
one  of  those  mules  is  needed  in  the  mine.  The  work 
they  do  can  be  better'  done  at  one-tenth  the  cost — yes, 
it  can  be  done  at  no  cost  at  all;  while  if  the  mules 
are  brought  out  and  sold,  they  will  bring  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  thousand  dollars." 

"Go  on.  Explain.  What  do  the  mules  do,  and 
how  is  their  work  to  be  done  without  them?  " 

"They  do  just  two  things;  they  haul  coal  to  the 
bottom  of  the  inclined  shaft,  where  it  must  be  reloaded 
— at  wholly  unnecessary  expense — in  order  to  be  hauled 
by  machinery  up  the  incline  to  the  surface.     Half  the 


in        A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

time  they  are  employed  in  hauling  water.  The  mine, 
you  must  understand,  declines  from  the  foot  of  the 
shaft  to  the  end  of  the  main  heading.  The  very  lowest 
level  of  all  is  there,  where  I  propose  to  put  in  a 
ventilating  shaft,  with  a  fan;  all  the  water  flows  to 
that  point,  flooding  it.  Under  the  antediluvian 
methods  in  use  in  this  mine,  all  this  water  must  be 
pumped  into  leaky  cars  and  hauled  by  mules  to  the 
bottom  of  the  the  sloping  shaft,  whence  it  is  drawn  up 
by  the  engine,  spilling  half  of  it  before  it  reaches 
the  surface.  Now,  when  I  sink  that  ventilating  shaft 
out  there  on  the  prairie,  I  must  have  an  engine  to 
turn  the  fan.  Very  well,  I've  got  it.  Among  the 
junk  that  Captain  Hallam  bought  when  the  war 
ended  and  the  river  navy  went  out  of  commission, 
there  are  parts  of  many  little  steam  engines.  I've 
busied  myself  at  night  in  measuring  these  and  fitting 
part  of  one  to  parts  of  another.  The  result  is  that 
I  have  made  an  engine  out  of  this  rubbish,  which 
will  not  only  drive  the  ventilating  fan,  but  will  also 
pump  all  the  water  out  of  the  mine." 

"  But  will  not  the  mules  be  needed  for  hauling  coal 
to  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  ?  " 

"Not  at  all,  if  you  are  willing  to  spend  a  little 
money  in  an  improvement — say  a  fourth  or  a  third  of 
what  the  mules  will  bring  in  the  market — or  consid- 
erably less  than  it  costs  to  feed  and  curry  them  for 
a  year." 

"What  is  the  nature  of  the  improvement?" 


DICK    TEMPLE'S    PLANS  173 

"Why,  simply  an  extension  to  every  part  of  the 
mine  of  the  cable  system  by  which  the  engine  now 
hauls  the  coal  and  water  up  the  slope." 

"  But  where  are  we  to  get  power?  " 

"By  using  what  we  already  have.  Our  great 
engine  is  a  double  one.  We  are  using  only  one  of 
its  cylinders.  We  have  only  to  connect  the  other  in 
order  to  have  all  the  power  we  need." 

"But  what  about  steam?" 

"That's  easy  to  make.  We  have  several  unused 
boilers,  and  as  we  burn  nothing  under  our  boilers  but 
culm— the  finely  slaked  coal  for  which  there  isn't  a 
market,  even  at  a  tenth  of  a  cent  a  ton — it  will  cost 
us  absolutely  not  one  cent  to  make  all  the  steam  we 
need." 

"  You  seem  to  have  thought  it  all  out." 

"I  have  done  more  than  that.  I  have  worked  it 
all  out.  I  must  work  all  day  in  a  heading,  of  course, 
in  order  to  make  bread  and  butter.  I  have  worked  at 
night  over  these  problems." 

"  And  you  are  sure  you've  got  the  right  answers?" 

"Greatly  more  than  sure — absolutely  certain!" 

"  Very  well.  You  are  now  chief  engineer,  or  any- 
thing else  you  please,  at  a  chief  engineer's  salary. 
You  are  to  go  to  work  at  once  digging  the  new  venti- 
lating and  pumping  shaft.  You  are  to  proceed  at 
once  to  install  your  other  improvements,  and,  when 
you  report  to  me  that  there  is  no  longer  any  use 
for  the  mules  in  the  mine,  I'll  bring  them  all  out  and 


174         A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

sell  them.  I'll  look  to  the  payments  incidental  to 
your  work.  My  mission  here  is  to  make  this  mine  a 
paying  property.  To  that  end,  you  are  to  bear  in 
mind,  I  have  an  entirely  free  hand,  and  all  the  money 
needed  is  at  my  command.  Now  let  that  finish  busi- 
ness for  to-night.  I  want  you  to  spend  the  rest  of 
the  dark  hours  in  telling  me  your  story  and  Mary's. 
I  want  to  know  all  that  has  happened  to  both  of  you 
since— well,  since  she  told  me  she  loved  you  and  not — 
me.  You  don't  mind  sitting  up  for  the  rest  of  the 
night?" 

"Certainly  not.  I've  sat  up  with  you  on  far 
smaller  provocation." 

"  But  how  about  Mary?  " 

"  She  will  sleep,  or,  if  she  doesn't — and  I  suppose 
she  won't — she  is  entirely  happy.  She  will  be  glad  to 
have  me  spend  the  night  with  you." 

"  Very  well,  then.  Tell  me  the  story  of  what  has 
happened  to  you  and  Mary  since  the  day  when  we 
quarreled  like  a  pair  of  idiots,  and — like  men  of 
sense — decided  not  to  fight.     I  want  to  hear  it  all." 

"  I'll  tell  it  all,"  said  the  other.     And  he  did. 


XIX 

Dick  Temple's  Story 

THIS  is  the  story  that  Richard  Temple  told 
to   his    friend   in   the   small  hours   of   that 
night's    morning.      Let    us    dispense    with 
quotation  marks  to  cover  it. 

You  know  what  my  education  was.  My  uncle, 
whose  heir  I  was  supposed  to  be,  spared  no  expense  to 
equip  me  for  my  life's  work.  He  sent  me  to  the  best 
schools  in  the  North,  and  afterwards  to  the  best 
schools  in  Europe.  Just  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  and  because  of  it,  I  returned  to  Virginia.  I  se- 
cured a  commission  in  the  engineer  corps,  but  I  soon 
resigned  it,  because  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  there 
was  no  earnest  work  for  the  engineer  corps  to  do, 
and  I  foolishly  thought  there  never  would  be.  I  en- 
listed as  a  private  in  the  artillery,  and  before  the  end 
of  the  war  I  was  a  captain. 

A  few  months  before  the  war  ended,  I  married 
Mary.  You,  of  course,  understand.  Mary  was  the 
daughter  of  an  ancient  and  honorable  house,  but  she 
was  living  as  a  dependent  in  the  family  of  a  very 

175 


176        A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

remote    relative — so    remote    that    the    kinship    was 
rather  mythical    than  real. 

At  that  time  I  owned,  or  was  supposed  to  own,  my 
ancestral  plantation,  Robinet.  My  uncle  at  his  death 
had  left  it  to  me. 

As  a  man  abundantly  able  to  provide  for  a  wife,  I 
asked  Mary  to  marry  me,  and  to  become  the  mistress 
of  Robinet. 

We  were  married  about  the  time  Fort  Harrison  fell 
into  the  enemy's  hands.  I  remember  that  I  had  to 
delay  the  wedding  in  order  to  bombard  Fort  Harrison 
with  my  mortars,  in  preparation  for  the  infantry 
assault,  which  it  was  hoped  might  recover  the  works. 

When  that  affair  was  over,  and  our  lines  were  re- 
constructed, I  got  leave  of  absence,  and  Mary  and  I 
were  married. 

I  was  foolish  enough  to  believe,  even  in  the  autumn 
and  winter  of  1864,  that  we  of  the  South  were  cer- 
tain to  win  the  war.  As  I  look  back  now  and  con- 
sider the  conditions  then  existing,  I  wonder  at  my 
own  stupidity  in  not  seeing  what  the  end  must  be. 
However,  that  would  have  made  no  difference  in  any 
case.  I  must  take  Mary  out  of  her  condition  of 
dependence,  by  marrying  her,  and  I  did  so. 

When  the  end  came,  I  went  home  for  a  little  while. 
My  uncle  had  died  in  hopeless  despondency.  His 
estate,  when  I  inherited  it,  was  buried  in  debt,  and 
with  the  negroes  no  longer  mine,  the  creditors  clearly 
saw  that  I  could  never  pay    out.     They    descended 


DICK   TEMPLE'S   STORY  177 

upon  me  in  a  swarm.  There  was  nothing  for  me  to 
do  but  make  complete  surrender  of  my  possessions  to 
them.  These  were  sufficient  to  pay  about  forty  cents 
on  the  dollar  of  the  hereditary  debt. 

As  soon  as  disaster  thus  came  upon  me,  I  set  out 
to  find  employment  in  my  profession,  promising  my- 
self that  I  should  soon  be  able  to  pay  all  the  debts  of 
which  I  had  been  acquitted  as  a  bankrupt. 

I  knew  that  I  had  as  much  of  skill  in  my  pro- 
fession as  a  young  man  with  little  practical  experience 
could  have.  I  saw  that  there  must  be  a  world  of  work 
done  by  way  of  developing  the  resources  of  the  coun- 
try after  four  years  of  paralyzing  war.  I  thought 
there  was  pressing  need  of  my  services  and  my  skill, 
and  I  confidently  counted  upon  quickly  achieving 
place  and  pay  for  myself. 

I  didn't  know  the  ways  of  men  then,  but  I  soon 
found  them  out.  Wherever  there  seemed  to  be  an 
opening  for  me,  I  found  that  Somebody's  son  got  the 
place,  because  Somebody  could  influence  its  bestowal. 

Once  I  did  get  employment.  There  was  a  little 
stretch  of  railroad  to  be  built,  by  way  of  connecting 
one  line  with  others.  I  applied  for  the  place  of 
engineer,  and  was  promptly  informed  that  John 
Harbin  had  already  been  appointed  to  it.  You  know 
John.  You  know  what  a  blockhead  he  is.  I  was 
graduated  in  the  same  class  with  him — he  simply 
cheating  his  way  through.  When  I  heard  of  his  ap- 
pointment,   I    was    dumbfounded.     I   knew   that   he 


178        A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

simply  could  not  do  the  work.  He  could  not 
calculate  a  curvature  to  save  his  life.  As  for  the 
more  difficult  operations  of  engineering,  he  was  as 
helpless  as  a  child. 

I  was  curious  to  learn  how  he  intended  to  get 
through  with  his  task.  I  soon  found  out.  He  sent 
for  me  and  asked  me  to  become  his  "  assistant."  The 
pay  he  offered  was  barely  sufficient  to  keep  me  alive. 
In  brief,  the  arrangement  was  that  I  should  do  the 
work  while  he  drew  the  pay  and  got  the  credit.  That 
was  because  John  Harbin's  father  was  president  of  the 
railroad  that  was  making  the  extension,  and  John 
Harbin's  father  had  no  purpose  to  let  any  good  thing 
go  out  of  the  family. 

I  was  rapidly  getting  my  education  in  the  ways  of 
the  world,  and  I  was  paying  a  high  price  for  it.  For 
a  few  months  I  did  the  work  of  a  competent  engineer 
on  a  salary  that  paid  me  less  than  a  laborer's  wage. 
Finally  I  resigned  in  disgust  and  set  out  to  find  some- 
thing better.  I  tramped  across  country  to  every  mine 
I  could  hear  of — for  in  my  studies  I  had  specialized 
in  mining — but  nowhere  could  I  secure  employment. 
There  was  always  some  man  with  influence,  where  I 
had  none,  and  always  the  man  with  the  influence  got- 
the  place. 

At  last  I  tramped  my  way  out  here.  I  had  made 
up  my  mind  to  ask  no  longer  for  employment  as  an 
engineer.  I  applied  to  Davidson  for  a  miner's  place 
only.     At  first  he  refused,  after  looking  at  my  hands 


DICK   TEMPLE'S    STORY  179 

and  satisfying  himself  that  I  had  had  no  experience 
in  practical  mining.  But,  as  they  pay  miners  here 
only  by  output — a  certain  price  per  ton  for  the  coal 
a  miner  gets  out — I  persuaded  him  at  last  to  let  me 
go  into  a  heading  with  a  pick  and  a  shovel,  and  a 
package  of  blasting  powder. 

Then  I  wrote  to  Mary,  telling  her  of  my  situation, 
and  charging  her  that  she  must  from  that  day  forth 
pay  the  cost  of  her  living  out  of  such  money  as  I 
could  send  her.  In  order  that  I  might  send  her 
enough — for  I  was  determined  that  she  should  not 
be  in  any  remotest  way  a  dependent — I  instantly  cut 
off  all  my  personal  expenses.  I  had  my  soldier 
blanket,  and  my  overalls.  I  needed  no  other  clothes, 
for  in  the  mine  I  always  go  barefoot.  I  was  well 
used  to  sleeping  out  of  doors,  so  I  slept  on  the  ground 
under  the  coal  chutes.  I  took  the  job  of  cooking  for 
a  gang  of  bachelor  miners,  who  gave  me  my  board  for 
my  services. 

In  that  way  I  planned  to  send  all  of  my  wages  to 
Mary.  But  I  didn't  really  know  Mary.  I  thought 
of  her  always  as  a  tenderly  nurtured  girl,  who  must 
be  shielded  at  all  hazards  against  hardship  of  every 
kind;  and  I  meant  so  to  shield  her.  But  presently 
she  revealed  herself  in  another  character.  You  know 
how  it  was  in  the  army.  The  gentlemen  soldiers,  the 
men  of  good  breeding,  the  men  who  had  lived  in 
luxury  from  childhood,  with  servants  to  anticipate 
every  need,  real  or  fancied,  were  the  readiest  to  meet 


180         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

hardship,  and  to  do  hard  work.  You  and  I  have  seen 
such  men  drudging,  willingly  and  cheerfully,  in  the 
half -frozen  mud  of  the  trenches,  while  other  men,  who 
had  never  known  anything  better  than  a  log  cabin  for 
a  home,  bacon  and  greens  for  dinner,  and  a  bed  of 
straw  to  sleep  upon,  were  almost  in  mutiny  because  of 
the  hardships  they  must  endure  as  soldiers. 

It  is  true  that  "  Blood  will  tell,"  and  it  is  as  true 
with  women  as  with  men.  Blood  asserted  itself  in 
Mary's  case.  Her  answer  was  prompt  to  my  letter 
telling  her  I  had  taken  work  as  a  miner.  She  utterly 
repudiated  the  thought  that  she  was  to  go  on  living 
in  idleness,  while  I  should  go  on  toiling  to  furnish  her 
the  means  of  living  so.  I  shall  never  forget  her 
words : 

"  I  am  coming  to  you  quickly,  Richard,  to  convert 
your  miner's  cabin  into  a  home.  Where  the  husband 
is,  the  wife  should  be  with  all  she  knows  of  helpful- 
ness and  cheer." 

And  she  came.  From  that  hour  to  this  I  have 
known  what  the  word  "  home  "  means,  far  better  than 
I  ever  did  in  my  life  before.  We  have  two  rooms — 
she  built  one  of  them,  a  little  lean-to,  with  her  own 
hands.     And  her  presence  glorifies  both  of  them. 

"  I  am  very  glad,  Dick." 

That  was  all  that  Duncan  could  say.  It  was  all 
there  was  need  for  him  to  say. 


XX 

In  the  Summer  Time 

SIX  months  came  and  went  before  Duncan's 
work  at  the  mine  was  done.  Then,  in  mid- 
July,  he  returned  to  Cairo  and  gave  an  account 
of  his  stewardship.  With  Temple  in  control  as 
superintendent  and  engineer,  the  mine  had  become  a 
richly  paying  property,  and  with  Temple  there, 
there  was  no  further  need  for  Duncan's  presence. 

During  that  half  year,  Duncan  had  lived  chiefly 
with  the  Temples  in  the  superintendent's  house,  which 
Mary  Temple  had  quickly  converted  from  a  barn- 
like structure,  standing  alone  upon  the  face  of  the 
bald  prairie,  into  a  home  in  the  midst  of  a  garden  of 
flowers. 

During  his  long  stay  at  the  mine,  Duncan  had 
made  frequent  visits  to  Cairo.  These  were  brief  in 
duration,  usually  covering  a  Sunday,  but  each  visit 
gave  Guilford  Duncan  two  opportunities  that  he  de- 
sired. He  could  sit  late  on  Saturday  evening,  dis- 
cussing his  plans  with  Captain  Will  Hallam,  and  on 
Sunday  he  had  opportunity  to  become  more  and  more 
closely  acquainted  with  Barbara. 

181 


182         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

He  made  no  formal  calls  upon  her,  and  none  were 
necessary.  He  simply  adopted  the  plan  of  remain- 
ing after  the  one  o'clock  Sunday  dinner  and,  little 
by  little,  Barbara  came  to  feel  that  he  expected  her  to 
join  him  in  the  little  parlor,  after  his  cigar  was 
finished.  He  seemed  to  like  the  quiet  conversations 
with  her,  while  she  regarded  the  opportunity  to  talk 
with  a  man  so  superior  in  education,  culture,  and 
intellect,  to  any  other  that  she  had  known,  as  a  privi- 
lege to  be  prized. 

Their  attitude  toward  each  other  at  this  time  was 
peculiar.  They  were  good  friends,  fond  of  each 
other's  society,  and  seemingly,  at  least,  they  were 
nothing  more.  The  fascination  that  Duncan  had 
from  the  first  felt  in  Barbara's  presence  was  still 
upon  him,  but  he  accepted  it  more  calmly  now,  and 
it  soothed  his  natural  restlessness,  where  at  first  it 
had  excited  it. 

To  Barbara,  Guilford  Duncan's  attitude  seemed  a 
gracious  condescension,  which  she  did  not  dream  that 
she  deserved.  She  sometimes  wondered  that  this 
young  man  of  rare  quality,  who  was  sure  of  a  welcome 
wherever  he  might  go,  should  be  content  to  sit  with 
her  throughout  the  Sunday  afternoons,  instead  of 
seeking  company  better  fit  to  entertain  him.  There 
were  young  women  in  Cairo  who  had  been  much  more 
conventionally  educated  than  she — young  women  who 
had  mingled  in  society  in  Chicago,  and  in  eastern 
cities.     A  few  of  them  had  even  traveled  in  Europe — 


IN  THE   SUMMER  TIME  183 

a  thing  very  rare  among  Americans,  and  especially 
among  Western  Americans  in  the  sixties.  These 
young  women  knew  all  about  operas  and  theaters. 
They  had  heard  great  musicians  play  and  great 
singers  sing.  They  had  seen  all  the  notable  actors. 
They  read  the  current  literature  of  the  time — the 
lighter  part  of  it  at  least — and  above  all,  they  were 
mistresses  of  the  "patter,"  which  passes  for  brilliancy 
and  sometimes  even  for  wit  in  fashionable  life. 

Guilford  Duncan  visited  none  of  these,  and  Bar- 
bara could  not  understand. 

"  He  is  too  tired,  I  suppose,"  was  her  reflection, 
"  when  he  runs  down  to  Cairo  for  a  Sunday  rest.  He 
doesn't  want  to  see  anybody  or  talk  to  anybody.  I 
can  easily  understand  that.  So  he  just  sits  here 
instead  of  going  out." 

Barbara's  explanation  was  obviously  defective  at 
one  point.  If  Duncan  did  not  care  to  see  people,  if  he 
was  too  weary  for  conversation,  how  came  it  about 
that  he  stayed  and  talked  gently,  but  constantly,  with 
her,  instead  of  going  to  the  rooms  he  had  fitted  up  for 
himself  since  prosperity  had  come  to  him?  She  had 
heard  much  of  those  rooms,  of  the  multitude  of  books 
that  he  had  put  into  them,  of  the  bric-a-brac  with 
which  he  had  rendered  them  homelike  and  beautiful. 
They  were  in  fact  very  simple  rooms,  inexpensively 
furnished.  But  Duncan  had  devoted  a  good  deal  of 
attention  and  an  unfailing  good  taste  to  their  furnish- 
ing and  adornment,  and  thus,  by  the  expenditure 


184        rA  CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

of  a  very  little  money  he  had  managed  to  create  a 
bachelor  apartment  which  was  the  talk  of  the 
town. 

"He  is  alone  when  he  goes  there,"  the  girl  ex- 
plained to  herself,  when  at  last  this  question  arose 
in  her  mind.  "  And  I  suppose  he  feels  lonely.  But 
why  doesn't  he  go  somewhere,  instead  of  just  sitting 
here  in  our  little  parlor  or  out  in  the  porch  ?  " 

It  was  a  riddle  that  she  could  not  read,  and  for  the 
present,  at  least,  Duncan  would  not  offer  her  any 
help  in  solving  it.  He  knew  now  that  Barbara  Verne 
was  the  woman  he  loved — the  only  woman  in  all  the 
world  who  could  be  to  him  what  a  wife  must  be  to 
a  man  of  his  temperament,  if  two  souls  are  to  be 
satisfied. 

But  he  saw  clearly  that  Barbara  Verne  had  no 
thought  of  that  kind  in  her  mind — or,  at  least,  no  such 
conscious  thought.  She  was  accustomed  to  think  of 
herself  as  a  very  commonplace  young  woman,  not  at 
all  the  equal  of  this  very  superior  man,  to  whom 
everybody  in  Cairo  paid  a  marked  deference.  He 
understood  Barbara  as  she  did  not  at  all  understand 
herself.  He  had  looked  upon  her  white  soul  and 
bowed  his  head  in  worship  of  its  purity,  its  nobility, 
its  utter  truthfulness.  He  knew  the  qualities  of  a 
mind  that  had  no  just  self -appreciation.  He  felt, 
rather  than  knew,  that  no  thought  of  his  loving  her — 
otherwise  than  as  an  elder  brother  might  love  a  little 
sister — had  ever  crossed  her  consciousness.     He  felt 


IN  THE   SUMMER  TIME  185 

that  the  abrupt  suggestion  of  that  thought  would  only 
shock  and  distress  her. 

"  I'll  find  a  way  of  making  others  suggest  it,  after 

a  while,"  he  resolved.     "  In  the  meanwhile "     He 

didn't  finish  the  sentence,  even  in  his  own  mind.  But 
what  he  did  in  that  "  meanwhile  "  was  to  see  as  much 
as  possible  of  Barbara,  to  talk  with  her  impersonally, 
gently,  and  interestingly,  to  win  her  perfect  trust 
and  confidence,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  to  make  his 
presence  a  necessary  thing  to  her.  He  paid  her  no 
public  attention  of  any  kind.  But  he  paid  no  public 
or  private  attention  to  any  other  young  woman.  It 
was  well  understood  that  for  a  time  he  was  living  at 
the  mine  and  coming  to  Cairo  only  for  brief  visits  of 
a  business  character,  at  infrequent  intervals.  His 
neglect  of  society,  therefore,  seemed  in  need  of  no 
explanation,  while  his  unostentatious  intimacy  with 
Barbara  attracted  no  attention.  The  only  person 
who  ever  spoke  to  him  about  it  was  Mrs.  Will  Hallam. 

"You  are  going  to  marry  Barbara  Verne,  of 
course  ?  "  she  half  said,  half  asked  one  day. 

"  If  I  can,  yes,"  he  answered. 

"  I'm  very  glad  of  that,"  and  she  said  no  more. 

On  his  final  return  to  Cairo,  however,  Duncan 
found  himself  expected  in  what  is  called  society. 
Society  was  destined  to  disappointment,  for  Duncan 
went  nowhere — except  that  he  usually  sat  for  some 
hours  every  Sunday  afternoon  in  the  vine-clad  porch 
of  the  house  in  which  he  took  his  meals.     Barbara's 


186         A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

aunt  often  sat  there  with  him.  Barbara  always  did 
so,  in  answer  to  what  seemed  to  be  his  wish.  He  made 
no  calls.  He  declined  all  invitations  to  the  little 
excursions  on  the  river,  which  constituted  the  chief 
social  activities  of  the  summer  time.  He  gave  it  out 
that  he  was  too  busily  engaged  with  affairs  to  have 
time  for  anything  else,  and  that  explanation  seemed 
for  a  time  to  satisfy  public  curiosity. 

And  that  explanation  was  true.  Guilford  Dun- 
can had  begun  to  take  upon  himself  the  duties  of 
a  leader — in  an  important  way — in  the  work  of  up- 
building which  at  that  time  was  engaging  the  atten- 
tion of  all  men  of  affairs.  He  had  accumulated  some 
money,  partly  by  saving,  but  more  by  the  profits  of 
his  little  investments,  and  by  being  "let  in  on  the 
ground  floor"  of  many  large  enterprises,  in  the  con- 
ception and  conduct  of  which  his  abilities  were  prop- 
erly appreciated  by  the  capitalists  who  undertook 
them. 

Except  as  a  legal  adviser,  he  was  no  longer  a  man 
employed  by  other  men  now.  His  relations  with  Will 
Hallam  were  closer  than  ever,  but  they  were  no  longer 
those  of  secretary,  or  clerk,  or  employee  in  any  other 
capacity.  In  many  enterprises  he  was  Hallam's  part- 
ner. In  all,  he  was  his  legal  adviser,  besides  being 
employed  in  a  like  capacity  by  one  or  two  railroad 
companies  and  the  like.  He  had  offices  of  his  own, 
and  while  he  was  still  not  at  all  rich,  or  a  man 
who  was  reckoned  a  capitalist,  he  was  everywhere 


IN  THE  SUMMER  TIME  187 

recognized  as  a  young  man  of  power  and  influence, 
whose  brains  had  brought  him  into  close  association 
with  the  greater  men  of  affairs,  not  only  in  Cairo,  but 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  especially  in  New 
York.  For  that  great  city  had  by  this  time  made 
itself  completely  the  financial  capital  of  the  country, 
and  its  controlling  hand  was  felt  in  every  enterprise 
of  large  moment  throughout  the  land. 


XXI 

'An  Interview  with  Napper  Tandy 

FOR  more  than  a  year  now  Guilford  Duncan 
had  been  diligently  studying  those  processes  of 
upbuilding  which  were  so  rapidly  converting 
the  West  into  an  empire  of  extraordinary  wealth  and 
power.  He  had  made  many  suggestions  that  had 
commended  themselves  for  immediate  execution,  to- 
gether with  some  that  must  wait  for  years  to  come. 
He  had  condemned  some  projects  that  seemed  hopeful 
to  others,  and  he  had  induced  modifications  in  many. 

All  these  things  had  been  done  mainly  in  his  let- 
ters and  reports  to  Captain  Will  Hallam,  but  the  sub- 
stance of  those  letters  and  reports  had  been  promptly 
laid  before  others,  especially  before  those  great  finan- 
ciers of  the  East,  upon  whom  all  enterprises  of  mo- 
ment throughout  the  country  depended  for  the  means 
of  their  accomplishment.  In  that  way  Guilford 
Duncan  had  become  known  to  the  "  master  builders  " 
as  he  called  these  men,  and  had  won  a  goodly  share  of 
their  confidence.  He  was  regarded  as  a  young  man 
of  unusual  gifts  in  the  way  of  constructive  enterprise 
— a  trifle  overbold,  some  thought,  overconfident, 
even  visionary,  but,  in  the  main,  sound  in  his  calcu- 

188 


INTERVIEW   WITH   NAPPER   TANDY  189 

lations,  as  results  had  shown  when  his  plans  were 
adopted.  On  the  other  hand,  some  projectors,  whose 
enterprises  he  had  discouraged  as  unsound  or  prema- 
ture, complained  that  so  far  from  being  a  visionary, 
he  was  in  fact  a  pessimist,  a  discouraging  force  that 
stood  in  the  way  of  that  "  development  of  the  coun- 
try" from  which  they  hoped  for  personal  gain  of 
one  kind  or  another.  There  were  little  towns  that 
aspired  to  become  larger  towns,  and  stretches  of  unde- 
veloped country  in  which  Guilford  Duncan  was  re- 
garded as  an  arch  enemy  of  progress — almost  as  a 
public  enemy.  The  reason  for  this  was  the  fact  that 
he  had  advised  against  the  construction  of  railroads, 
from  which  the  little  towns  concerned,  and  the 
stretches  of  thinly  peopled  country  between,  had  hoped 
to  benefit,  and  his  advice  had  been  accepted  as  sound 
by  the  financiers  to  whom  the  projectors  looked  for 
the  means  of  securing  what  they  wanted. 

Napper  Tandy  was  Guilford  Duncan's  enemy  from 
the  hour  in  which  Duncan  had  forced  that  little  branch 
railroad  in  the  coal  regions  to  haul  Hallam's  coal 
on  equal  terms  with  his  own.  But  Tandy  had  said 
nothing  whatever  about  that.  He  never  published 
his  enmities  till  the  time  came.  About  the  time  of 
Duncan's  return  to  Cairo,  he  added  another  to  his 
offenses  against  Tandy,  in  a  way  to  intensify  that 
malignant  person's  hostility. 

Tandy  was  scheming  to  secure  a  costly  extension 
of  this  branch  railroad  through  a  sparsely  settled 


190         A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

and  thin-soiled  region,  in  a  way  that  would  greatly 
enrich  himself,  because  of  his  vast  property  holdings 
there.  He  had  well-nigh  persuaded  a  group  of  capi- 
talists to  undertake  the  extension  when,  acting  cau- 
tiously as  financiers  must,  they  decided  to  ask  Dun- 
can to  study  the  situation  and  make  a  report  upon 
the  project.  He  had  already  studied  the  question 
thoroughly  during  his  stay  at  the  mines,  and  was  con- 
vinced that  nothing  but  loss  could  come  of  the  at- 
tempt. The  region  through  which  the  line  must  run 
was  too  poor  in  agricultural  and  other  resources  to 
afford  even  a  hope  of  a  paying  traffic.  The  line  itself 
must  be  a  costly  one  because  of  certain  topographical 
features,  and  finally  another  and  shorter  line,  closely 
paralleling  this  proposed  extension,  but  running 
through  a  much  richer  country,  was  already  in  course 
of  construction. 

Tandy  knew  all  these  things  quite  as  well  as  Guil- 
ford Duncan  did.  But  Tandy  also  knew  many  meth- 
ods in  business  with  which  Duncan  was  not  familiar. 

As  soon  as  he  was  notified  by  the  capitalists  with 
whom  he  was  negotiating  that  they  had  employed 
Duncan  to  examine  and  report,  and  that  their  final 
decision  would  be  largely  influenced  by  his  judgment, 
Tandy,  with  special  politeness,  wrote  to  Duncan,  ask- 
ing him  to  call  at  his  house  that  evening  "  for  a  little 
consultation  on  business  affairs  that  may  interest  both 
of  us." 

Duncan  well  knew  that  he  had  offended  Tandy  in 


INTERVIEW   WITH   NAPPER   TANDY  191 

the  matter  of  the  coal  cars,  but  as  Tandy  had  made 
no  sign,  he  could  see  no  possible  reason  for  refusing 
this  request  for  a  business  consultation.  Moreover, 
Guilford  Duncan  felt  himself  under  a  double  responsi- 
bility. He  felt  that  he  must  not  only  guard  and 
promote  the  interests  of  those  who  had  employed  him 
to  study  this  question,  but  that  he  was  also  under  obli- 
gations "to  consider  carefully  the  interests  involved  on 
the  other  side.  His  function,  he  felt,  was  essentially 
a  judicial  one.  He  knew  one  side  of  the  case.  It 
was  his  duty  to  hear  the  other,  and  Tandy  was  the 
spokesman  of  that  other. 

Duncan's  reception  at  Tandy's  house  was  most  gra- 
cious. The  gentlewomen  of  the  family  were  present 
to  greet  him,  and  Mrs.  Tandy  said,  in  welcoming  him: 
"  Sometimes  I  feel  like  hating  business — it  so  dread- 
fully occupies  you  men.  But  just  now  I  am  in  love 
with  business  because  it  brings  you  to  us  in  our  home. 
We  have  never  before  had  the  honor  of  even  a  call 
from  you,  Mr.  Duncan." 

"  I  have  given  little  attention  to  social  duties,  Mrs. 
Tandy,"   Duncan  began    apologetically.     "I  have 

done  next  to  no  calling.     You  see " 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  know  how  it  is.  Mr.  Tandy  says  you 
are  the  most  '  earnest '  young  man  in  Cairo,  and  of 
course  we  poor  women  folk  understand  that  you 
are  too  much  engaged  with  what  Mr.  Tandy  calls 
6  affairs,'  to  give  any  time  to  us.  But  I  am  glad  to 
greet  you  now,  and  to  welcome  you  to  our  home. 


i92         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

Perhaps,  some  day,  when  you  and  Mr.  Tandy  and — . 
and  Captain  Hallam — have  got  all  the  things  done 
that  you  want  done,  you  will  have  more  time  for  social 
duties.  Mr.  Tandy  tells  me  you  have  achieved  a  re- 
markable success.  He  says  you  will  soon  be  reckoned 
a  rich  man,  and  that  you  are  already  a  man  of  very 
great  influence.  Now,  I  shouldn't  say  these  things 
if  I  had  any  daughters  to  marry  off.  As  I  haven't 
any  daughters,  of  course  I  am  privileged.  But  I 
seriously  want  to  say  that  you  have  won  Mr.  Tandy's 
regard  in  so  great  a  degree  that  he  is  planning  to 
make  you  his  partner  and  associate  in  all  his  enter- 
prises. He  says  you  are  to  become  one  of  our  'great 
men  of  affairs,'  and  that  he  means  to  have  you  '  with 
him'  in  all  his  undertakings  for  the  development  of 
our  splendid  western  country." 

When  the  voluble  woman  ceased,  Guilford  Duncan 
wondered  whence  she  had  got  her  speech. 

"Tandy  could  never  have  composed  it,"  he  was 
sure.  "She  must  have  done  it  herself.  But,  of 
course,  Tandy  gave  her  the  '  points.'  She  is  a  very 
clever  woman.  I  remember  it  was  she  who  invited 
[Barbara  as  a  guest  of  honor  at  some  sort  of  a  func- 
tion three  days  after  Barbara  appeared  at  the  fancy 
dress  ball.  She  had  never  noticed  her  before.  That 
woman  is  of  a  superior  kind — in  her  way.  I  can't 
imagine  a  wife  better  *  fit '  for  a  man  like  Tandy.  All 
the  same  I  don't  mean  to  let  her  '  take  up '  Barbara. 
She's  far  too  '  smart.'      She  isn't  Barbara's  sort." 


INTERVIEW  WITH   NAPPER   TANDY  193 

"Now,  I've  ordered  coffee  and  cigars  for  you  gentle- 
men," said  Mrs.  Tandy,  as  she  arose  to  leave.  "  Of 
course  you  want  to  '  talk  business,'  and  when  business 
is  on  the  tapis  we  women  folk  must  retire  to  our  rooms. 
Business  is  our  greatest  rival  and  enemy,  Mr.  Duncan. 
On  this  occasion  I  not  only  take  myself  out  of  the 
way,  but  I  have  bidden  my  two  sisters  remain  in 
the  dining  room  until  you  two  gentlemen  shall  have 
finished  your  talk.  After  that— perhaps  ten  o'clock 
will  suit  you — you  are  to  come  into  the  dining  room, 
if  you  are  gracious  enough,  and  have  a  little  supper." 

Duncan  bowed,  in  implication  of  a  promise,  which 
he  was  not  destined  to  fulfill. 

When  the  gracious  gentlewoman  had  left  the  room, 
Napper  Tandy  came  at  once  to  the  subject  in  hand. 

"  I'm  more  than  glad,  Duncan,"  he  lyingly  said, 
"that  these  financial  people  have  asked  you  to  ex- 
amine and  report  upon  this  scheme  of  extension.  You 
are  so  heartily  in  sympathy  with  every  enterprise 
that  looks  to  the  development  of  our  western  country, 
and  your  intelligence  is  so  superbly  well  informed  that 
of  course  a  project  like  this  appeals  to  you." 

"It  does  not  appeal  to  me  at  all,  Mr.  Tandy," 
answered  Duncan  with  a  frankness  that  was  the  more 
brutal  because  it  was  his  first  word  after  Mrs.  Tandy's 
flattering  appeal. 

"  I  do  not  think  well  of  the  extension.     It " 

"  Pardon  me  for  interrupting,"  interposed  Tandy, 
in  fear  that  Duncan  might  commit  himself  beyond 


194        A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

recall  against  the  scheme.  "Pardon  me  for  inter- 
rupting, but  you  must  see  that  the  Redwood  mines, 
in  which,  I  understand,  you  own  fifteen  per  cent. " 

"I  own  twenty-five  per  cent.,  for  I  have  put  my 
savings  into  that  enterprise,"  answered  Duncan. 

"  Well,  so  much  the  better.  You  must  see  that  the 
Redwood  mines,  in  which  you  own  twenty-five  per 
cent.,  will  benefit  as  much  as  the  Quentin  mines  do, 
by  this  extension  of  the  railroad.  It  will  give  us  two 
markets  for  our  coal  instead  of  one.  We  can  play 
one  market  against  the  other,  you  see,  and " 

"  That  isn't  the  question  that  I  am  employed  and 
paid  to  answer,"  interrupted  Duncan.  "You  have 
other  and  vastly  greater  interests  than  those  of  the 
mines,  that  would  be  served  by  the  extension  of  the 
railroad.  But  the  financiers  who  are  asked  to  put 
their  money  into  this  project  will  be  in  nowise  bene- 
fited, either  by  the  increased  earnings  of  your  coal 
mine  and  ours,  or  by  the  development  of  your  other 
and  far  greater  interests  that  are  dependent  upon  this 
extension.  So  when  they  employ  me  to  report  upon 
the  project,  I  am  not  free  to  consider  any  of  these 
things.  I  must  consider  only  their  interests.  I  must 
ask  myself  whether  or  not  it  will '  pay '  them  to  under- 
take this  extension.  I  know  that  it  will  not.  I  know 
that  the  extended  line  cannot,  within  a  generation  to 
come,  pay  even  operating  expenses,  to  say  nothing 
of  interest  on  the  cost  of  construction.  I  am  bound 
to  set  forth  those  facts  in  my  report.     They  pay  me 


INTERVIEW  WITH   NAPPER   TANDY  195 

to  tell  them  what  the  facts  are.  Of  course,  I  shall 
tell  them  truly.  Otherwise  I  should  not  be  an  honest 
man.  I  should  be  a  swindler,  taking  their  money  as 
pay  for  deceiving  them  and  inducing  them  to  under- 
take a  losing  enterprise." 

"  Now  wait  a  while,  Duncan.  Listen  to  me.  Your 
worst  fault,  and,  in  business,  your  worst  handicap,  is 
a  tendency  to  go  off  at  half-cock.  You've  learned 
a  lot  about  business  since  you  came  to  the  West,  but 
you  still  have  your  old  Southern  notions,  and  they 
embarrass  you.  Let  me  explain.  I'm  a  business 
man,  pure  and  simple.  I  haven't  any  ideas,  or  preju- 
dices, or  foolishnesses  of  any  kind.  Neither  have 
those  fellows  in  New  York  who  have  employed  you 
to  report  on  this  scheme.  They  are  playing  the 
game,  to  win  or  lose  as  the  case  may  be.  Generally, 
they  win,  but  now  and  then,  in  a  little  matter  like 
this,  they  lose.  Of  course,  they  don't  mind.  They 
take  their  losses  and  their  winnings  together,  and  if 
the  total  result  is  on  the  right  side  they  don't  bother 
about  the  times  they  have  put  their  money  on  the 
wrong  card.     It's  all  a  gamble  with  them,  you  know." 

"Is  it?  Then  why  do  they  pay  me  a  large  fee  to 
find  out  the  facts  and  report?  " 

"  Oh,  well " 

"Hear  me  out,"  interrupted  Duncan.  "These 
gentlemen  have  asked  me  for  an  opinion,  and  they 
are  paying  me  for  it.  Of  course  I  must,  as  an 
honest  man,  give  them  an  honest  judgment." 


196         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"Oh,  that's  all  right.  But  you  might  be  mis- 
taken, you  know.  You've  formed  a  judgment  after 
a  brief  trip  through  the  country.  That  country 
seems  poverty  stricken  just  now,  but  that's  because 
it  hasn't  enjoyed  the  stimulating  influence  of  a  rail- 
road. It  is  a  better  country  than  you  think,  as  I 
can  convince  you,  if  you'll  let  me  take  you  through 
it  in  a  carriage.  We  can  start  at  once — to-morrow 
morning — run  out  to  the  mines  by  rail,  and  there  take 
a  carriage  and  drive  through  the  country.  I've 
ordered  the  carriage,  with  abundant  supplies,  from 
Chicago.  I  want  to  show  you  the  resources  of  the 
country.  I'll  convince  you,  before  we  get  back,  that 
the  country  will  build  up  as  soon  as  the  railroad  pene- 
trates it,  and  that  there  will  be  an  abundant  traffic 
for  the  road." 

"Pardon  me,"  answered  Duncan.  "I've  already 
been  through  that  region.  I've  questioned  every 
farmer  as  to  his  crops.  I've  questioned  every  mer- 
chant in  every  village  as  to  his  possible  shipments  by 
the  railroad,  and  as  to  the  amount  of  goods  he  hopes 
to  sell  if  the  railroad  is  built.  Their  replies  are  hope- 
lessly discouraging.  Taking  their  outside  estimates 
as  certain,  there  cannot  be  enough  traffic  over  such  a 
line  for  twenty  years  to  come,  to  pay  operating  ex- 
penses. In  the  meantime  the  men  whom  you  are  ask- 
ing to  build  the  road  must  lose  not  only  the  interest 
on  their  investment,  but  the  investment  itself.  I 
know  all  the  facts  that  bear  upon  the  case." 


INTERVIEW  WITH  NAPPER   TANDY  197 

"  All  but  one,"  answered  Tandy. 

"What  is  that  one?" 

"  That  a  favorable  report  from  you  means  a  check, 
right  now  and  here,  to-night,  payable  to  '  Bearer,'  for 
ten  thousand  dollars.  My  check  is  supposed  to  be 
good  for  all  it  calls  for.  You  can  have  it  now 
and  it  will  be  cashed  to-morrow  morning.  Here  it 
is.  Payable  to  bearer  as  it  is,  you  needn't  endorse  it, 
and  you  need  not  be  known  in  the  matter  in  any  way. 
I'm  talking  '  business '  now." 

Duncan  scanned  the  face  of  his  interlocutor  for  an 
instant.  Then  he  rose  from  his  seat,  and  with  utter- 
ance choked  by  emotion  managed  to  say : 

"I  quite  understand.  You  would  bribe  me  with 
that  check.  You  would  hire  me  to  betray  the  con- 
fidence of  the  men  who  are  paying  me  a  very  much 
smaller  sum  than  ten  thousand  dollars.  You  pro- 
pose to  buy  my  integrity,  my  honor,  my  soul.  Very 
well.  My  integrity,  my  honor,  and  my  soul  are  not 
for  sale  at  any  price.  I  shall  make  an  honest  report 
in  this  matter.  Good-night,  sir!  Perhaps  you  will 
make  my  excuses  to  the  ladies  for  not  joining  them 
at  supper  as  I  promised  to  do.  As  for  the  rest,  you 
may  explain  to  them  that  I  am  not  such  a  scoundrel 
as  you  hoped  I  might  be." 

And  with  that  Guilford  Duncan  stalked  out  of  the 
house,  helping  himself  to  his  hat  as  he  passed  the  rack 
in  the  entry  way. 


XXII 

Under  the  Honeysuckles 

IF  Guilford  Duncan  had  been  a  little  more  worldly 
wise  than  he  was,  he  would  have  gone  at  once  to 
Captain  Will  Hallam.  He  would  have  told  that 
shrewdest  of  shrewd  men  of  the  world  all  that  had 
passed  between  himself  and  Tandy,  and  he  would  have 
asked  Will  Hallam's  advice  as  to  what  course  to 
pursue. 

Instead  of  that  Guilford  Duncan  went  at  once  to 
Barbara.  He  felt  a  need  of  sympathy  rather  than  a 
need  of  advice,  and  he  had  learned  to  look  to  Barbara, 
above  all  other  people  in  the  world,  for  sympathy. 

He  was  still  a  good  deal  disturbed  in  his  emotions 
when  Barbara  greeted  him  in  the  little  porch,  and  it 
was  a  rather  confused  account  that  he  gave  her  of 
what  had  happened. 

"  I  don't  quite  understand,"  said  Barbara  at  last. 
"  Perhaps  if  you  have  a  cup  of  tea  you  can  make  the 
matter  clearer,"  and  without  waiting  for  assent  or 
dissent,  she  glided  out  to  the  kitchen,  whence  she  pres- 
ently returned  bearing  a  fragrant  cup  of  Oolong. 

"  Now,"  she  said,  after  he  had  sipped  the  tea,  "  tell 
me  again  just  what  has  happened.     You  were  too 

198 


UNDER   THE    HONEYSUCKLES       199 

much  excited,  when  you  told  me  before,  to  tell  me 
clearly." 

"Well,  it  amounts  to  this,"  answered  Duncan. 
"  That  scoundrel  Tandy " 

"  Stop ! "  said  Barbara,  in  an  authoritative  tone. 
"  Never  mind  Tandy's  character.  If  you  go  off  on 
that  you'll  never  make  me  understand." 

In  spite  of  his  agitation,  Duncan  laughed.  "  How 
you  do  order  me  about ! " 

"Oh,  pardon  me!"  exclaimed  the  girl  in  manifest 
alarm.  "  I  didn't  mean  to  do  that.  I  would  never 
think  of  doing  such  a  thing.     I  only  meant " 

"My  dear  Miss  Barbara,  I  fully  understand.  I 
need  ordering  about  to-night,  and  I  heartily  wish  you 
would  take  me  in  hand." 

"  Oh,  but  I  could  never  presume  to  do  that ! " 

"I  don't  see  why,"  answered  Duncan.  "You  are 
my  good  angel,  and  it  is  the  business  of  my  good 
angel  to  regulate  me  and  make  me  behave  as  I 
should." 

"  But,  Mr.  Duncan " 

"  But,  Barbara  " — it  was  the  first  time  he  had  ever 
addressed  her  by  her  given  name  and  without  the 
"Miss" — "you  know  I  love  you — or  you  ought  to 
know  it.  You  know  I  want  you  to  be  my  wife.  Say 
that  you  will,  and  then  I  shall  be  free  to  tell  you  all 
my  troubles  and  to  take  your  advice  in  all  of  them. 
Say  that  you  love  me,  Barbara!  Say  that  you  will 
marry  me!" 


200         A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

All  this  was  in  contravention  of  Guilford  Duncan's 
carefully  laid  plans,  as  a  declaration  of  love  is  apt 
to  be,  so  long  as  women  are  fascinating  and  men  are 
human.  He  had  intended  to  put  the  thought  of  his 
love  for  Barbara  into  her  unsuspecting  mind  by  in- 
genious "trick  and  device."  It  had  been  his  plan 
presently  to  escort  her  to  church,  to  the  concerts  that 
now  and  then  held  forth  at  the  Athenaeum,  to  Mrs. 
Hallam's  for  a  game  of  croquet,  to  Mrs.  Galagher's 
for  the  little  dances  that  that  gracious  gentlewoman 
gave  now  and  then,  even  in  the  heat  of  a  southern  Illi- 
nois summer.  He  had  even  chartered  a  steamboat,  and 
planned  to  give  a  picnic  in  the  Kentucky  woodlands 
below  Cairo,  to  which  he  should  escort  Barbara.  He 
had  thought  in  these  ways  to  set  the  tongues  of  all 
the  gossips  wagging,  and  thus  to  force  upon  Barbara 
the  thought  of  his  love  for  her. 

All  was  now  spoiled,  as  he  thought,  when  he  so 
precipitately  declared  his  love  there  in  the  vine-clad 
porch. 

Barbara  was  obviously  surprised.  Duncan  could 
not  quite  make  out  whether  she  was  shocked  or  not, 
whether  his  declaration  of  love  pleased  or  distressed 
her. 

For  she  made  no  answer  whatever.  Instead  she 
nervously  plucked  honeysuckles  and  still  more  nerv- 
ously let  them  fall  from  her  hands. 

Duncan  was  standing  now,  and  in  torture  lest  he 
had  spoiled  all  by  his  precipitancy.     He  waited,  as 


UNDER    THE    HONEYSUCKLES       201 

patiently  as  he  could,  for  the  girl's  answer,  but  it 
came  not.  Her  silence  seemed  ominous  to  him.  It 
seemed  to  mean  that  she  was  shocked  and  offended  by 
a  declaration  of  love,  for  which  he  had  not  in  any 
wise  prepared  her. 

But  Duncan  was  a  man  of  action.  It  was  not  his 
habit  to  accept  defeat  without  challenging  it  and 
demanding  its  reasons.  So  presently  he  advanced, 
passed  his  arm  around  Barbara's  waist,  and  gently 
caressed  her  forehead,  as  a  father  or  an  older  brother 
might  have  done. 

She  accepted  the  caress  in  that  spirit,  seemingly, 
and  then  she  turned  toward  the  hall  door,  saying : 

"Good-night!" 

But  Duncan  was  not  to  be  so  baffled.  He  had 
blundered  upon  a  declaration  of  love — as  most  men 
do  who  really  love — and  he  did  not  intend  to  go  away 
without  his  answer. 

"  Don't  say  '  good-night '  yet,"  he  pleaded,  again 
passing  his  arm  around  her  waist.  "  Tell  me  first, 
is  it  yes  or  no  ?     Will  you  be  my  wife  ?  " 

The  girl  turned  and  faced  him.  There  was  that  in 
her  eyes  which  he  had  never  seen  there  before,  and 
which  he  could  not  interpret.  At  last  her  lips  parted, 
and  she  said : 

"  I  cannot  tell,  yet.     You  must  wait." 

And  with  that  she  slipped  through  the  door,  leaving 
him  no  recourse  but  to  take  his  leave  without  other 
formality  that  the  closing  of  the  front  gate. 


XXIII 

Captain  Will  Hallam  in  the  Game 

THE  next  morning,  very  early,  Guilford  Dun- 
can's negro  servant — for  he  kept  one  now — 
brought  him  a  note  from  Barbara.     It  read 
in  this  wise: 

I  wish  you  would  take  your  meals  at  the  hotel  for  a  few 
days,  or  a  week  or  two — till  you  hear  from  me  again. 

There  was  no  address  written  at  top  of  the  sheet, 
and  no  signature  at  the  bottom.  There  was  nothing 
that  could  afford  even  a  ground  for  conjectural  ex- 
planation. There  was  nothing  that  could  call  for  a 
reply — perhaps  there  was  nothing  that  could  war- 
rant a  reply  or  excuse  its  impertinence.  Neverthe- 
less Guilford  Duncan  sent,  by  the  hands  of  his  negro 
servitor,  an  answer  to  the  strange  note.  In  it  he 
wrote : 

I  have  told  you  of  my  love.  I- tell  you  that  again,  with  all 
of  emphasis  that  I  can  give  to  the  telling.  I  have  asked  you 
to  be  my  wife.  I  ask  it  again  with  all  of  earnestness  and  sin- 
cerity, with  all  of  supplication,  that  I  can  put  into  the  asking. 

202 


CAPT.   HALLAM  IN  THE   GAME 

Oh,  Barbara,  you  can  never  know  or  dream  or  remotely  imagine 
how  much  these  things  mean  to  me  and  to  my  life. 

I  shall  take  my  meals  at  the  hotel— or  not  at  all— until  yott 
bid  me  come  to  you  for  my  answer. 

Then,  with  resolute  and  self -controlled  mind,  Guil- 
ford Duncan  set  himself  to  work.  He  prepared  his 
report  upon  the  proposed  railroad  extension,  con- 
demning it  and  giving  adequate  reasons  for  his 
condemnation. 

He  was  still  indignant  that  Napper  Tandy  should 
have  offered  him  a  bribe,  and  in  the  first  draft  of  his 
report  he  had  mude  a  statement  of  that  fact  as  an 
additional  reason  for  his  adverse  judgment.  But 
upon  reflection  he  rewrote  the  report,  omitting  all 
mention  of  the  bribe  offer.  Then  he  wrote  to  Tandy 
— a  grievous  mistake — telling  him  that  he  had  senE 
in  an  adverse  report,  and  that  he  had  omitted  to  men- 
tion Tandy's  offer  in  it. 

This  gave  Tandy  the  opportunity  he  wanted  and 
Guilford  Duncan  was  not  long  in  discovering  the  fact. 
A  week  later  Captain  Will  Hallam  said  to  him : 

"  So  you've  been  quarreling  with  Napper  Tandy?" 

"Yes,"  answered  Duncan.  "He  offered  to  bribe 
me  to  make  a  false  report  in  the  railroad  extension 
matter." 

"Why  didn't  you  tell  me  about  it?" 

"  Oh,  I  didn't  want  to  bother  you  with  a  whining. 
I  rejected  the  bribe,  of  course,  and  told  him  what  I 
thought  of  him,  and  that  seemed  to  me  enough." 


204         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

"Well,  it  wasn't.  You  ought  to  have  told  me. 
Then  we  could  have  made  him  put  his  offer  into 
writing,  or  make  it  in  my  presence.  As  it  is,  he's 
got  you  where  the  hair  is  uncommonly  short." 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Why,  he  has  written  to  the  financiers,  telling  them 
that  as  soon  as  they  employed  you,  you  went  to  him 
and  demanded  a  payment  of  ten  thousand  dollars  as 
an  inducement  to  you  to  make  a  favorable  report; 
that  he  refused,  and  that  consequently  your  report 
was  adverse.  They  will  refuse  to  build  the  rail- 
road, but  they  have  written  to  ask  me  as  to  your 
integrity." 

"  The  infernal  scoundrel !     How " 

"  It  doesn't  pay  to  call  him  names.  We  must  think 
out  a  way  to  meet  this  thing." 

"  I'll  horsewhip  him  on  the  street ! "  exclaimed  Dun- 
can. 

"  No,  don't !  That  would  only  advertise  the  matter 
and  do  no  good.  A  man  of  your  physique  has  no 
occasion  for  fear  in  horsewhipping  a  man  like  Napper 
Tandy,  and  can  show  no  courage  by  doing  it.  The 
only  result  would  be  that  people  would  say  there  must 
be  something  in  his  accusation,  else  you  wouldn't  be 
so  mad  about  it.  You  have  made  a  good  many  ene- 
mies, you  know,  and  they  will  take  pleasure  in  repeat- 
ing Tandy's  accusations.  Really,  Duncan,  you  ought 
to  have  been  more  discreet.  You  ought  to  have  taken 
a  witness  with  you,  when  you  went  to  his  house  for 


CAPT.   HALLAM   IN   THE   GAME      205 

consultation.  As  it  is,  the  financiers  have  so  far  be- 
lieved in  you  as  to  reject  his  scheme  on  your  report, 
and  in  face  of  his  accusation,  but  he'll  do  you  a 
mighty  lot  of  damage  in  Cairo  and  elsewhere.  I  don't 
know  what  to  do." 

"I  do,"  answered  Guilford  Duncan  resolutely. 
"  A  year  ago  you  and  Ober  wanted  to  make  me  mayor 
of  this  town.  I  explained  to  you  that  I  was  ineligible 
then,  not  having  been  long  enough  a  resident  of  the 
State.  I  am  eligible  now,  and  I  shall  announce  my- 
self to-day  as  a  candidate." 
"What  good  will  that  do?" 

"It  will  give  the  people  of  the  city  a  chance  to 
pass  upon  my  integrity — to  say  by  their  ballots  what 
they  think  of  me;  and,  incidentally,  it  may  give  me 
an  opportunity  to  say  what  I  think  and  know  of 
Napper  Tandy." 

"  I  don't  know  so  well  about  that.  You  see,  people 
don't  always  express  their  opinions  by  their  votes. 
They  let  their  politics  and  their  prejudices  have  a  say, 
and  you  know  you  have  made  a  good  many  enemies. 
Then  again,  what  good  will  it  do  you  to  tell  the  public 
what  you  think  of  Tandy?  That  won't  convince  a 
living  soul  who  isn't  convinced  already.  The  rest  will 
say  that  you  are  naturally  very  angry  with  the  man 
who  found  you  out — the  man  from  whom  you  un- 
successfully tried  to  extort  a  bribe.  You  see  there 
were  no  witnesses  present  when  your  interview  with 
Tandy  occurred.     That  was  a  capital  mistake  on  your 


206         A   CAPTAIN   IN   THE   RANKS 

part.  Then,  too,  you  went  to  his  house  for  this  busi- 
ness, and  people  will  say  that  that,  too,  looks  bad. 
You  have  destroyed  the  invitation  he  sent  you,  and 
so  you  have  nothing  to  show  that  you  didn't  go  to 
his  house,  as  he  says  you  did,  without  invitation,  in 
order  to  extort  a  bribe.  It's  a  bad  mix-up,  but  for 
you  to  go  into  politics  would  only  make  it  worse.  We 
must  find  another  way  out.  Keep  perfectly  still,  and 
leave  the  matter  to  me.  I'll  plan  something."  Then 
suddenly  a  thought  flashed  into  Captain  Will  Hal- 
lam's  mind. 

"  By  Jove !  I've  got  it,  I  believe.  Go  down  to  our 
bank  and  ask  the  cashier,  Mr.  Stafford,  how  many 
shares  we  can  control  in  the  X  National — Tandy's 
bank ;  he's  president,  you  know." 

Without  at  all  understanding  Captain  Hallam's 
purpose,  Duncan  went  upon  this  mission,  returning 
presently  with  the  information  that  in  one  way  and 
another  the  Hallam  bank  controlled  forty-eight  shares 
of  the  X  National's  stock — or  three  shares  less  than  a 
majority  of  the  whole.  He  brought  also  the  message 
from  Stafford  that  as  Tandy  himself  controlled  the 
remaining  fifty-two  shares  it  would  probably  be  im- 
possible at  present  to  buy  any  more. 

"I  don't  know  so  well  about  that,"  said  Hallam 
reflectively.  "I've  managed  in  my  time  to  get  a  good 
many  impossible  things  done.  I'm  not  a  very  firm 
believer  in  the  impossible."  Then  suddenly  he  turned 
to  Duncan  and  fired  a  question  at  him; 


CAPT.   HALLAM   IN   THE   GAME      207 

"  Have  you  a  friend  anywhere  whom  you  can  trust 
— one  not  known  in  Cairo?  " 

"Yes,  one." 

"You  are  sure  you  can  trust  him?" 

"  Yes,  absolutely." 

"  You  wouldn't  hesitate  to  put  a  pile  of  money  into 
his  hands  without  a  scrap  of  paper  to  show  that  the 
money  was  yours,  not  his  ?  " 

"  I  would  trust  him  as  absolutely  as  I  would  trust 
you,  or  you  me." 

"All  right,  who  is  he?" 

"Dick  Temple — the  mining  engineer  and  superin- 
tendent." 

"Telegraph  him  at  once.  Ask  him  to  come  down 
on  the  evening  train.  Tell  him  to  say  nothing  about 
knowing  you  or  me,  but  to  come  to  your  rooms  this 
evening.     I'll  see  him  there." 

Duncan  took  up  a  pad  of  telegraph  blanks  and 
a  pencil.  He  had  scarcely  begun  to  write  when  Hal- 
lam  stopped  him. 

"  Never  do  that,"  he  exclaimed.  "  Never  write  a 
message  on  a  pad,  especially  with  a  pencil." 

"But  why  not?" 

"  See ! "  answered  Hallam,  tearing  off  the  blank  on 
which  Duncan  had  begun  to  write,  and  directing 
attention  to  the  blank  that  lay  beneath.  "The  im- 
pression made  by  the  pencil  on  the  under  sheet  is  as 
legible  as  the  writing  above.  It  would  be  awkward 
if  Tandy  should  pick  up  that  pad  and  find  out  what 


208         A   CAPTAIN   IN  THE  RANKS 

you  had  telegraphed.  Always  tear  the  top  blank  off 
the  pad  and  lay  it  on  the  desk  before  you  write 
on  it." 

"Thank  you!  That's  another  of  your  wise  pre- 
cepts.    I  wonder  I  didn't  think  of  it  before." 

"Oh,  hardly  anybody  ever  does  think  of  such 
things,  but  they  make  trouble." 

That  night  Hallam,  Duncan,  and  Temple  met  in 
Duncan's  rooms.  Hallam  promptly  took  possession 
by  requesting  Duncan  to  "  go  away  somewhere,  while 
I  explain  matters  to  Temple." 

When  Duncan  had  taken  his  leave  Hallam  plunged 
at  once  into  the  heart  of  things. 

"  Duncan  tells  me  you're  his  friend — one  who  will 
stand  by  him?" 

"I  am  all  that,  you  may  be  sure,  Captain 
Hallam." 

"Very  good.  Now  is  the  time  to  show  yourself 
such.  Duncan  has  got  himself  into  something  worse 
than  a  hole,  and  his  whole  career,  to  say  nothing  of 
his  honorable  reputation,  is  in  danger.  You  and  I 
can  save  him." 

"Would  you  mind  telling  me  the  exact  situation? 
Not  that  I  need  to  know  it  in  order  to  do  anything  you 
think  would  be  helpful,  but  if  I  fully  understand  the 
matter,  I  shall  know  better  what  to  do  in  any  little 
emergency  that  may  come  about." 

"Of  course,  of  course.  It's  simply  this  way. 
Duncan  is  so  straight  himself  that  it  never  occurs  to 


CAPT.   HALLAM   IN  THE   GAME      209 

him  that  other  people  are  different.  There  are  some 
things  so  utterly  mean  that  he  simply  can't  imagine 
any  man  capable  of  doing  them.  So  he  doesn't  take 
necessary  precautions.  It  was  all  right  for  him  to 
offend  Napper  Tandy  by  doing  his  own  best  up  there 
at  the  mines.  But  he  ought  to  have  known  enough 
of  human  nature  not  to  put  himself  in  old  Napper's 
power  when  he  felt  bound  to  offend  him  worse  than 


ever." 


Then  Captain  Will  told  in  detail  the  story  of  the 
visit  to  Tandy,  the  bribe  offer,  the  adverse  report, 
and  the  way  in  which  Tandy  had  made  the  whole  affair 
appear  to  have  been  an  effort  on  Duncan's  part  to  ex- 
tort a  bribe  and  betray  those  who  had  employed  him. 
Temple  readily  grasped  the  situation. 

"  The  worst  of  it  is,"  he  said,  "  Duncan  can't  even 
sue  the  old  scoundrel  for  libel  without  making  matters 
worse.  Tandy  would  stick  to  his  story,  and  as  there 
were  no  witnesses  that  story  would  seem  probable  to 
people  who  don't  know  Duncan.  What  are  we  to 
do,  Captain  Hallam?" 

"Well,  it  all  depends  upon  your  shrewdness  and 
circumspection.  Tandy  is  president  of  the  X  Na- 
tional Bank,  you  know.  That's  his  club  to  fight  me 
with.  So,  little  by  little,  I've  bought  in  there- 
through other  people,  you  understand — so  that  now 
Stafford  and  I  own  forty-eight  of  the  bank's  hun- 
dred shares  of  stock,  though  on  the  books  our  names 
do  not  appear  at  all.     Tandy  owns  the  other  fifty-two 


210         A  CAPTAIN   IN  THE   RANKS 

shares,  I  suppose,  or  at  least  he  controls  them.  In- 
deed, whenever  a  stockholder's  meeting  occurs  he  votes 
practically  all  the  stock,  for  it  has  been  my  policy  to 
hide  my  hand  by  having  the  men  who  hold  stock  for 
me,  give  him  their  proxies  as  a  blind. 

"Now,  what  I  propose  is,  that  you  shall  manage 
somehow  to  get  hold  of  a  little  block  of  the  stock — 
three  shares  will  be  enough  to  give  me  the  majority, 
but  I'd  rather  make  it  four  or  five  shares.  If  we  can 
get  the  stock  I'll  surprise  Tandy  out  of  a  year's 
growth  by  going  into  the  stockholders'  meeting,  which 
occurs  about  ten  days  from  now,  and  proceeding  to 
elect  a  board  of  directors  for  the  bank.  I'll  select  the 
men  I  want  for  directors,  and  the  board  will  at  once 
make  Guilford  Duncan  president  of  the  bank,  leaving 
old  Napper  a  good  deal  of  leisure  in  which  to  enjoy 
life.  He'll  need  it  all  to  convince  anybody  that 
there's  anything  shady  in  Guilford  Duncan's  char- 
acter after  it  is  known  that  Will  Hallam  has  made 
him  president  of  a  bank." 

Hallam  chuckled  audibly.  He  was  enjoying  the 
game,  as  he  always  did. 

"  Indeed,  he  will.  But  everything,  as  I  understand 
it,  depends  upon  my  ability  to  secure  the  necessary 
shares  of  stock  ?  " 

"  Yes,  it  all  hangs  on  that,  and  it  will  be  a  ticklish 
job.  Tandy  is  as  wily  as  any  old  fox.  You're  sure 
he  doesn't  know  you?" 

"  Neither  by  sight  nor  by  name." 


CAPT.   HALLAM  IN  THE   GAME     211 

"You're  sure  nobody  in  his  bank  knows  you  and 
your  relations  with  me?"  , 

"  Yes,  I  am  certain.  I  was  never  in  this  town  be- 
fore, and  as  for  my  relations  with  you,  why  they 
have  existed  for  so  brief  a  time,  at  such  a  distance 
from  Cairo,  and  are  so  obscure  in  themselves,  that  I 
think  nobody  knows  them.  Besides,  you  might  dis- 
charge me,  you  know,  if  that  should  become  neces- 
sary." 

"We  won't  consider  that  as  even  possible.  Now, 
as  to  ways  and  means.  You  see  I  depend  upon  you 
alone,  and  of  course  you  must  have  a  free  hand. 
You  mustn't  consult  me,  or  Stafford,  or  Duncan,  or 
anybody  else.  You  are  to  act  on  your  own  judgment, 
furnish  your  own  supply  of  sagacity,  and  get  that 
stock  in  your  own  way." 

"  I'll  do  it,  even  if  I  have  to  resign  from  your  ser- 
vice and  hunt  another  job.  But  I  must  have  some 
money." 

"Of  course.     How  much?" 

"  Well,  the  stock  will  cost  a  trCfle  over  par,  I  sup- 
pose— somewhat  more  than  a  thousand  dollars  a  share. 
I  should  be  prepared  to  buy  a  block  of  ten  shares. 
You  see,  I  might  find  a  block  of  that  kind  which  the 
owner  would  sell  'all  or  none.'  I  should  have,  say, 
eleven  or  twelve  thousand  dollars  at  instant  com- 
mand." 

"All  right.  I'll  have  Stafford  open  an  account 
with  you  in  our  bank  to-morrow  morning,  with  a 


212         A  CAPTAIN   IN   THE  RANKS 

credit  balance  of  twelve  thousand,  and  you  can 
check " 

"Pardon  me,  but  if  I  offer  checks  on  your  bank 
Tandy  will  suspect  our  alliance." 

"  That  is  true.  You  must  have  the  greenbacks 
themselves.  I'll  send  for  Stafford  now  and  have  him 
give  you  the  money  in  large  bills  to-night." 

"Pardon  me,"  answered  Temple,  "but  if  I  go  to 
him  with  so  great  a  sum  in  actual " 

"Yes,  I  see.  That  would  certainly  arouse  sus- 
picion.    What  have  you  in  mind?  " 

"  Why,  you  or  your  bank  must  have  banks  in  cor- 
respondence with  you,  banks  in  Chicago,  or  better 
still,  New  York?" 

"Yes,  of  course." 

"  Can  you  not  telegraph  to  one  of  them  and 
arrrange  to  have  them  say  in  response  to  a  dispatch 
of  inquiry  from  Tandy's  bank,  that  my  credit  with 
them  is  good  for  twelve  thousand  dollars,  and  that  if 
I  wish  to  make  use  of  some  money  in  Cairo,  they  will 
pay  my  drafts  up  to  that  amount  ?" 

"That's  it.  That  will  be  the  best  plan  in  every 
way.  You'll  need  identification,  and  I'll  arrange  that. 
You're  stopping  at  the  hotel,  of  course?" 

"Yes." 

"Very  well.  I'll  call  by  there  on  my  way  home, 
and  tell  the  proprietor,  Jewett,  to  go  to  the  bank  and 
identify  you  whenever  called  upon." 

"Will  he  not  talk?" 


CAPT.   HALLAM  IN  THE  GAME     213 

"  No.  I'll  tell  him  not  to,  and — well,  you  know,  Fm 
just  now  arranging  a  heavy  loan  for  him.  He  is 
paying  off  the  remaining  purchase  money  for  the 
hotel  in  installments.  That's  all,  I  think.  I'll  send 
the  Fourth  National  Bank  of  New  York  a  night  mes- 
sage. It  will  be  delivered  before  banking  hours  to- 
morrow morning,  but  for  fear  of  slips,  you'd  better 
wait  till  noon  before  giving  that  bank  as  your  refer- 
ence. Good-night.  Remember  that  everything  de- 
pends on  you — including  Guilford  Duncan's  reputa- 
tion for  integrity." 

Temple  sat  for  half  an  hour  thinking  and  planning. 
He  was  determined  to  make  no  mistakes  that  might 
imperil  success.  To  that  end  he  was  trying  to  im- 
agine, in  advance,  every  difficulty  and  every  emer- 
gency that  might  arise.  At  last  he  rose,  took  his 
hat,  turned  the  lamp  out,  and  left  the  room. 

"  This  is  the  very  toughest  bit  of  engineering,"  he 
reflected,  "that  ever  I  undertook.  Well,  so  much 
the  greater  the  credit  if  I  succeed.  But  I  don't  care 
for  the  credit.  I  care  only  for  Guilford  Duncan  in 
this  case." 


XXIV 


Barbara's  Answer 

WHEN  Duncan  left  his  room  on  the  evening 
of  Temple's  conference  with  Will  Hallam, 
he  passed  down  the  stairs  and  into  the  Hal- 
lam offices,  where  he  still  had  a  little  working  den  of 
his  own,  for  use  when  he  did  not  care  to  see  the  people 
who  sought  him  at  his  law  office. 

As  he  entered  he  found  a  little  note  upon  his  desk, 
and  he  recognized  Barbara's  small  round  hand  in  the 
superscription.  Opening  the  envelope  eagerly  he 
read  the  few  lines  within: 

-  You  may  come  for  your  answer  whenever  it  is  convenient — 
any  evening,  I  mean,  for  I  am  at  leisure  only  in  the  evenings. 
There  is  a  great  deal  for  me  to  tell  you,  and  it  is  going  to  be 
very  hard  for  me  to  tell  it.  But  it  is  my  duty,-  and  I  must  do 
it,  of  course.  I'm  afraid  it  won't  be  a  pleasant  evening  for 
either  of  us. 

There  was  no  address,  but  Duncan  observed  with 
pleasure,  as  a  hopeful  sign,  that  the  little  missive  was 
signed  "  Barbara." 

*  She  wouldn't  have  signed  it  in  that  informal  way, 

214 


BARBARA'S  ANSWER  215 

with  only  her  first  name,  if  she  meant  to  break  off  the 
acquaintance,"  he  argued  with  himself.  And  yet  the 
substance  of  the  note  was  discouraging  in  the  extreme, 
so  that  Guilford  Duncan  was  a  very  apprehensive  and 
unhappy  man  as  he  hurried  to  Barbara's  home.  He 
still  held  her  note  crushed  in  his  hand  as  he  entered 
the  house,  and  he  read  it  over  twice  while  waiting  for 
her  to  appear.  For  this  time — the  first  in  his  ac- 
quaintance with  her — Barbara  kept  him  waiting. 
She  had  not  meant  to  do  that,  but  found  it  necessary 
because  of  her  own  agitation  in  anticipation  of  the 
grievous  task  that  was  hers  to  do.  She  must  reso- 
lutely bring  herself  under  control,  she  felt,  before 
meeting  this  crisis.  She  even  tried  in  vain  to  "  think 
out"  the  first  sentences  that  she  must  speak.  Find- 
ing this  impossible  she  gave  it  up  at  last,  and  with 
all  of  composure  that  she  could  command,  she  entered 
the  parlor  and  stood  face  to  face  with  Guilford 
Duncan. 

She  could  say  no  word  as  he  stood  looking  eagerly 
into  her  eyes,  as  if  questioning  them.  He,  too,  was 
silent  for  perhaps  a  minute,  when  at  last,  realizing 
the  girl's  distressing  agitation,  he  gently  took  her 
hand,  saying  in  his  soft,  winning  voice : 

"  You  are  not  well.     You  must  sit  down." 

"  Oh,  it  isn't  that,"  she  answered,  as  she  seated  her- 
self bolt  upright  upon  the  least  easy  chair  in  the 
room.     "  It  is  what  I  must  tell  you." 

"What  is  it?     I  am  waiting  anxiously  to  hear." 


£16         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"You  must  be  very  patient  then,"  she  answered 
with  difficulty.  "  It  is  hard  to  say,  and  I  don't  know 
where  to  begin.  Oh,  yes,  I  know  now.  I  must 
begin  where  we  left  off  when — well,  that  other  time." 

Duncan  saw  that  she  needed  assistance,  and  he  gave 
it  by  speaking  soothingly  to  her,  saying : 

"You  are  to  begin  wherever  you  find  it  easiest  to 
begin,  and  you  are  to  tell  me  nothing  that  it  dis- 
tresses you  to  tell." 

"  Oh,  but  all  of  it  distresses  me,  and  I  must  tell  it — 
all  of  it." 

Again  Duncan  spoke  soothingly,  and  presently  the 
girl  began  again. 

"Well,  first,  I  can  never — I  mean  I  mustn't — I 
mustn't  say  '  yes '  to  the  questions  you  asked  me  that 
other  time." 

"You  mean  when  I  asked  if  you  would  be  my 
wife?" 

"Yes.  That's  it.  Thank  you  very  much.  That's 
the  first  thing  I  am  to  tell  you." 

"Who  bade  you  tell  me  that?" 

"Oh,  nobody — or  rather — I  mean  nobody  told  me 
I  mustn't  say  'yes,'  but  after  I  had  made  up  my 
mind  that  I  mustn't,  then  auntie  said  I  was  bound  to 
tell  you  about  it  all.  I  wanted  to  write  it,  but  she 
said  that  wouldn't  be  fair,  and  that  I  must  tell  you 
myself." 

"  But  why  did  you  make  up  your  mind  that  you 
mustn't  say  *  yes '  ?     Can  you  not  love  me,  Barbara  ?  " 


BARBARA'S  ANSWER  217 

"  Oh,  yes — I  mean  no — or  rather — I  mustn't." 
"  But  if  you  can,  why  is  it  that  you  mustn't?" 
That  question  at  last  gave  Barbara  courage  to 
speak.     It  seemed  to  nerve  her  for  the  ordeal,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  to  point  a  way  for  the  telling. 

"Why,  I  mustn't  love  you,  Mr.  Duncan,  because 
I  cannot  marry  you.  You  see,  that  would  be  very 
wrong.  When  you — well,  when  you  asked  me  those 
questions,  it  startled  me,  and  I  didn't  know  what  to 
say,  but  after  you  had  gone  away  that  night  I  saw 
clearly  that  I  mustn't  think  of  such  a  thing.  It 
would  be  so  unfair  to  you." 

"  But  how  would  it  be  unfair?  It  would  be  doing 
the  one  thing  in  the  world  that  I  want  you  to  do.  It 
would  be  giving  me  the  one  woman  in  the  world  whom 
I  want  for  my  wife,  the  only  woman  I  shall  ever  think 
of  marrying." 

"But  you  mustn't  think  of  that  any  more.  You 
see,  Mr.  Duncan,  I  am  not  fit  to  be  your  wife.  I 
should  be  a  terrible  drag  upon  you.  You  are  already 
a  man  of  prominence  and  everybody  says  you  are  soon 
to  become  a  man  of  great  distinction.  You  must 
have  a  wife  worthy  of  such  a  man,  a  wife  who  can 
help  him  and  do  him  credit  in  society.  Now  you 
know  I  could  never  become  that  sort  of  woman.  I 
am  only  an  obscure  girl.  I  don't  know  how.  I  can 
not  talk  brilliantly.  I  couldn't  impress  people  as 
your  wife  must.  I  am  not  even  educated  in  any 
regular  way,    I've  just  grown  up  in  my  own  fashion 


218         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

— in  the  shade  as  it  were — and  the  strong  sunlight 
would  only  emphasize  my  insignificance." 

Duncan  tried  to  interrupt,  but  she  quickly  cut  him 
short. 

"Let  me  go  on,  please.  You  are  very  generous, 
and  you  want  to  persuade  me  that  I  undervalue  my- 
self. You  would  convince  me,  if  you  could,  that  I 
am  a  great  deal  worthier  than  I  think  myself.  I 
know  better.  You  are  very  modest,  and  you  would 
like  to  make  me  believe  that  you  will  never  be  a  much 
more  distinguished  man  than  you  are  already,  but 
again  I  know  better.  Probably  you  wouldn't  become 
much  more  than  you  are,  if  you  were  to  marry  me, 
but  that  is  because  I  should  be  a  clog  upon  your 
life." 

"Will  you  let  me  say  one  word  at  this  point,  Bar- 
bara?" broke  in  Duncan,  in  spite  of  her  effort  to 
prevent. 

"  You  are  wronging  yourself  and  you  are  wronging 
me.  As  God  lives  I  tell  you  there  is  no  woman  in  the 
world  so  fit  to  be  my  wife  as  you  are.  My  only  wish 
is  that  I  were  worthy  to  have  such  a  wife !  I  intend, 
of  course,  to  achieve  all  that  I  can — to  make  the  best 
use  I  can  of  such  faculties  as  I  possess,  but  nothing 
imaginable  could  so  greatly  help  me  to  do  that  as  the 
inspiration  of  your  love,  and  the  stimulus  of  knowing 
that  you  were  to  be  always  by  my  side,  to  share  in 
all  the  good  that  might  come  to  me,  to  cheer  me  in 
disappointment,  to  help  me  endure,  and  above  all,  to 


BARBARA'S  ANSWER  219 

strengthen  me  for  my  work  in  the  world  by  your 
wise  and  loving  counsel.  For  you  are  a  very  wise 
woman,  Barbara,  though  you  do  not  know  it.  You 
look  things  squarely  in  the  face.  You  think  soundly 
because  you  think  with  absolute  and  fearless  sincerity. 
You  are  shy  and  timid,  and  self -distrustful.  Thank 
God,  you  will  never  grow  completely  out  of  that,  as  so 
many  women  do.  Your  modesty  wiH  always  remain 
a  crown  of  glory  to  your  character.  But  as  you  grow 
older,  retaining  your  instinctive  impulse  to  do  well 
every  duty  that  may  tie  before  you,  you  will  acquire 
enough  of  self-confidence  to  equip  you  for  all  emer- 
gencies. You  are  very  young  yet — even  younger  in 
feeling  than  in  years.  You  will  grow  with  every  year 
into  a  more  perfect  womanhood." 

An  occasional  tear  was  by  this  time  trickling  down 
the  girl's  cheeks.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  when 
the  man  she  loved  and  honored  above  all  others  was 
so  tenderly  saying  such  things  of  her,  and  to  her,  with 
a  sincerity  too  greatly  passionate  to  be  open  to  any 
doubt?  How  could  it  be  otherwise  when  she  knew 
I  that  she  must  put  aside  the  love  of  this  man,  her  hero 
— the  only  love,  as  she  knew  in  her  inmost  soul,  that 
she  could  ever  think  of  with  rejoicing  so  long  as  she 
should  live  ? 

She  would  have  interrupted  the  passionate  plead- 
ing if  her  voice  had  been  under  control.  As  it  was 
she  sat  silent,  while  he  went  on. 

"  I  have  spoken  of  my  ambitions  first,  and  of  your 


220         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

capacity  to  help  them,  not  because  such  things  are 
first  in  my  estimation,  but  because  you  have  treated 
them  as  worthy  of  being  put  first.  There  are  much 
higher  things  to  be  thought  of.  What  a  man 
achieves  is  of  far  less  consequence  than  what  a  man  is. 
That  which  I  ask  of  you  is  to  help  me  be  the  best  that 
I  am  capable  of  being,  and  for  you  to  be  it  with  me. 
I  want  to  make  the  most,  the  best,  the  happiest  life  for 
you  that  is  possible.  If  I  am  permitted  to  do  that, 
with  you  to  help  me  do  it,  it  will  be  an  achievement 
of  far  greater  benefit  to  the  world  than  any  possible 
external  success  can  be.  The  home  is  immeasurably 
more  important,  as  a  factor  in  human  life,  and  in  na- 
tional life,  than  the  mart,  or  the  senate,  or  the  pulpit, 
or  any  other  influence  can  be.  It  is  in  happy  homes 
that  the  saving  virtues  of  humanity  are  born  and 
nourished.  From  such  homes,  more  than  from  all  the 
pulpits,  and  all  the  institutions  of  learning,  there 
flows  an  influence  for  good  that  sweetens  all  life,  pre- 
serves morality,  and  keeps  us  human  beings  fit  to  live. 
Oh,  Barbara,  you  will  never  know  how  longingly  I 
dream  of  such  a  home  with  you  at  its  head!  You 
cannot  know  how  absolutely  the  worthiness  of  my  life 
depends  upon  such  a  linking  of  it  with  yours." 

The  girl  had  completely  given  way  to  her  emotions 
now,  but  with  that  resolute  self-mastery  which  was 
a  dominant  note  in  her  nature,  she  presently  con- 
trolled herself.  The  picture  that  his  words  had  cre- 
ated in  her  imagination  was  alluring  in  the  extreme. 


BARBARA'S   ANSWER  221 

But  she  was  strong  enough  to  put  the  dream  of  hap- 
piness aside. 

"  You  do  not  know  all,"  she  said.  "  You  have  not 
heard  all  I  have  to  tell  you.  You  haven't  heard  the 
most  important  part  of  it.  I  have  only  told  you  what 
I  thought  on  that  evening  when — when  you  asked — 
questions.  I  still  think  that  ought  to  settle  the  mat- 
ter, but  you  seem  to  think — perhaps  you  might  have 
convinced  me,  or  at  least — oh,  you  don't  know! 
There  are  other  reasons — stronger  reasons,  reasons 
that  nothing  can  remove." 

"  Tell  me  of  them.  I  can  imagine  no  reason  what- 
ever that  could  satisfy  me." 

"  It  is  very  hard  to  tell.  You  know  I  never  knew 
my  parents.  Both  my  mother  and  my  father  died  on 
the  day  I  was  born.  I  seem  to  know  my  mother,  be- 
cause auntie  loved  her  so  much,  and  has  talked  to  me 
so  much  about  her  all  my  life.  But  she  never  talked 
to  me  much  about  my  father.  His  family  was  a  good 
one — his  father  having  been  a  banker,  with  some  repu- 
tation as  an  artist  also,  and  my  father  was  his  partner 
in  business.  But  that  is  all  I  know  of  my  father — 
no,  that  isn't  what  I  meant  to  say.  I  meant  to  say 
that  that  is  all  my  aunt  ever  told  me  about  him,  and 
all  I  knew  until  the  night  when  you  asked  me — ques- 
tions. After  you  went  away  that  evening,  I  went  to 
my  room  and  thought  the  matter  out.  I  have  already 
told  you  what  conclusions  I  reached.  When  I  had 
decided,  I  went  to  auntie's  room  and  sat  on  the  side 


£2*         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

of  her  bed  and  told  her  everything.  She  cried  very 
bitterly — I  didn't  understand  why  at  first.  After 
a  while  she  said  she  didn't  at  all  agree  with  me  in  my 
conclusions,  and  added: 

"  ?  If  the  things  you  mention  were  all,  Bab,  I  should 
tell  you  to  stop  thinking  of  them,  and  let  Mr.  Dun- 
can judge  for  himself.  But  there  is  something  else, 
Bab — something  very  dreadful.  I  never  intended  to 
tell  you  of  it,  but  now  I  must.  You  would  find  it 
out  very  soon,  for  Tandy's  wife  knows  it,  and  if  she 
heard  that  there  was  anything  between  you  and  Mr. 
Duncan,  she  would  make  haste  to  talk  of  it — particu- 
larly after  what  has  happened  between  Tandy  and 
Mr.  Duncan.  Then  you  would  never  forgive  me  for 
not  telling  you.' 

"  She  went  on  then,  and  told  me  what  I  must  tell 
you.  She  told  me,  Mr.  Duncan,  that  I  am  the 
daughter  of  a  Thief!" 

The  girl  paused,  unable  to  go  on.  Duncan  saw 
that  she  was  suffering  acutely,  and  he  determined  to 
spare  her. 

"You  must  stop  now,  Barbara,"  he  said  in  a  ca- 
ressing tone.  "You  are  overwrought.  I  will  hear 
the  rest  another  time — when  you  feel  stronger  and 
send  for  me.  I  am  going  to  say  good-night  now,  so 
that  you  may  rest.  But  before  I  go  I  want  to  say 
that  nothing  you  have  told  me  can  make  the  least 
difference  in  my  feelings,  or  my  desires,  or  my  pur- 
poses.    You  are  what  you  are.     Nothing  else  mat- 


BARBARA'S   ANSWER 

ters.  When  you  feel  strong  enough,  I  will  come 
again  and  persuade  you  to  be  my  wife.  Good- 
night!" 

As  she  stood  facing  him,  with  unutterable  distress 
in  every  line  of  her  face,  he  leaned  forward  impul- 
sively, but  with  extreme  gentleness,  and  reverently 
kissed  her. 


XXV 

Temple  and  Tandy 

ON  the  morning  after  his  consultation  with 
Captain  Will  Hallam,  Richard  Temple  had 
his  first  interview  with  Tandy.  Jewett,  the 
hotel  proprietor,  walked  with  him  to  the  X  National 
Bank,  took  him  into  the  bank  parlor,  and  introduced 
him  to  the  president,  intimating  that  he  would  prob- 
ably wish  to  do  some  business  with  the  bank,  and 
assuring  Tandy  that  the  young  man  was  "as  square 
as  they  make  'em." 

Tandy  welcomed  the  visitor  cordially,  and  when 
Jewett  had  bowed  himself  out,  Temple  opened  nego- 
tiations, very  cautiously  and  with  every  seeming  of 
indecision,  as  to  what  he  might  ultimately  decide 
to  do. 

"  I  have  a  little  money,  Mr.  Tandy,  that  I  may  want 
to  invest.  I'm  rather  a  stranger  in  Cairo.  I  wonder 
if  you,  as  a  banker,  would  mind  advising  me.  Of 
course,  if  I  make  any  investments,  I  shall  do  so 
through  your  bank." 

"  It  is  my  business  to  advise  investors,  Mr.  Temple, 
224 


TEMPLE  AND  TANDY  225 

and  in  your  case  it  is  also  a  pleasure,  if  I  may  be 
permitted  to  say  so.  What  are  your  ideas — in  a 
general  way,  I  mean  ?  " 

"  It  would  be  somewhat  difficult  for  me  to " 

"Oh,  I  quite  understand.  You  haven't  yet  made 
up  your  mind.  You  want  to  look  about  you,  eh? 
Well,  that's  right.  There's  more  harm  done  by  haste 
in  making  investments  than  by  anything  else.  There 
are  lots  of  'cats  and  dogs'  on  the  market.  Of 
course  they're  a  good  buy  sometimes,  if  a  man  wants 
to  take  long  chances  for  the  sake  of  big  profits,  and 
if  he  is  in  a  position  to  watch  the  market.  But  it's 
awfully  risky.     Still " 

Tandy  hesitated  and  did  not  complete  his  sentence 
for  a  time.  He  was  wondering  just  "how  much  of 
a  sucker"  this  young  man  might  be.  Tandy  him- 
self held  some  small  blocks  of  securities  which  might 
very  properly  be  reckoned  in  the  feline  and  canine 
class.  He  wondered  if  it  might  not  be  possible  to 
"work  off"  some  of  these,  in  company  with  some 
better  stocks,  on  this  young  man.  He  was  closely 
scrutinizing  Temple's  visage,  trying  to  "  size  him 
up."  After  seeming  to  meditate  for  a  brief  space, 
he  resumed: 

"  It  is  risky,  of  course.  Still,  if  a  man  is  in  posi- 
tion to  watch  the  market  closely,  and  sell  out  at  the 
proper  time,  it  sometimes  turns  out  well  to  buy  a  few 
inferior  stocks,  when  buying  a  lot  of  better  ones. 
I've  known  it  to  happen  that  a  lucky  turn  in  the 


Z26        A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

market  enabled  a  man  to  sell  out  his  inferior  stocks 
at  a  profit  big  enough  to  pay  for  the  good  ones.  You 
see  the  inferior  stocks  can  be  bought  for  so  little  on 
a  dull  market,  such  as  we  have  at  present,  that  there 
can't  be  a  very  great  risk  in  buying  them  in  moderate 
quantities,  while  buying  better  securities  in  the  main. 
And  there's  always  a  chance  of  a  lucky  turn  in  the 
market,  and  with  it  a  chance  of  great  profits." 

Temple  did  not  interrupt  the  flow  of  Tandy's  finan- 
cial exposition.  He  had  three  reasons — all  of  them 
good — for  wishing  Tandy  to  talk  on.  In  the  first 
place  he  was  waiting  for  noonday,  before  mentioning 
his  credit  in  the  Fourth  National  Bank  of  New  York. 
In  the  second  place  it  was  his  "  cue  "  to  sit  reverently 
at  the  feet  of  this  great  financier,  and  to  make  as  lit- 
tle display  as  possible  of  his  own  sagacity.  Finally, 
he  was  studying  Tandy — "sizing  him  up" — finding 
out,  for  future  use,  all  that  he  needed  to  know  about 
the  man  with, whom  he  had  to  deal.  This  was  the 
result  of  the  "sizing  up,"  as  it  formulated  itself  in 
what  might  be  called  a  "first  draft,"  in  Temple's 
mind : 

"  He's  a  smooth,  plausible,  conscienceless  scoundrel ; 

"He's  so  far  filled  with  self-conceit  that  it  some- 
times blinds  him ; 

"He  would  gladly  swindle  me  out  of  my  eyes,  if 
he  could  do  so  without  being  caught ;  but  if  he  can't 
swindle  me,  he  will  be  glad  to  do  business  with  me  *  on 
the  square,'  as  he  would  put  it." 


TEMPLE  AND  TANDY  227 

But  Temple  wanted  to  complete  and  revise  and,  if 
necessary,  correct  this  first  draft  of  his  "  sizing  up," 
and  so  he  wanted  Tandy  to  go  on  talking. 

"  I  am  not  much  disposed  to  speculate  in  doubtful 
securities,"  he  said.  "I  can't  afford  it,  for  one 
thing,  and,  of  course,  I  am  not  in  position  to  watch 
the  market,  as  you  say.  What  I  would  like  is  to  put 
a  few  thousands  into  some  good,  safe,  dividend-pay- 
ing security.     Of  course " 

"You're  right,  of  course.  Still,  if  you  choose  to 
take  some  small  risk,  I  could  watch  the  market  for 
you.  I  often  do  that  for  customers  of  the  bank. 
I'm  naturally  in  a  position  to  know  what's  going  on. 
By  the  way,  how  much  money  have  you  to  invest?  " 

"  I  have  twelve  thousand  dollars  in  New  York " 

"Where  the  interest  rates  are  small,"  interrupted 
Tandy.  "  You  want  to  bring  it  West,  where  it  will 
earn  more.  I  understand.  You're  right  in  that.  The 
West  is  the  place  for  men  and  money  to  do  the  best 
they  can  for  themselves.  This  part  of  the  country 
is  growing  like  Jack's  beanstalk.  You  must  have 
noticed  it." 

"  I  certainly  have.  Indeed,  I  suppose  that  never 
before  in  all  history  did  any  region  grow  so  fast  or 
so  solidly." 

"There!  You've  hit  the  nail  on  the  head,"  said 
Tandy.  "Solidly!  And  that  accounts  for  many 
things.  The  conservative  people  of  the  East  never 
saw  anything  like  it,  and  they  can't  quite  believe  it. 


228         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

They  don't  realize  the  wonderful  soundness  of  things 
out  here.  They  have  learned  to  think  that  high  in- 
terest means  poor  security.  In  the  East,  where  there 
is  plenty  of  money  and  very  little  development  going 
on,  it  does.  But  here  in  the  West  the  case  is  differ- 
ent. Here,  interest  is  high  and  dividends  large, 
simply  because  the  country  is  growing  so  rapidly,  and 
developing  its  resources  so  wonderfully  fast.  Let  me 
illustrate.  My  friend,  Captain  Hallam,  recently 
bought  a  mine  up  the  State.  It  hadn't  been  properly 
developed,  so  he  bought  it  at  a  low  price  and  capi- 
talized it  at  cost,  adding  a  trifle  for  improvements. 
That  mine  is  now  paying  twenty  per  cent,  dividends 
on  its  stock,  in  addition  to  a  large  expenditure  every 
month  for  improvements.  Then,  again,  Captain 
Hallam  is  selling  off  the  farms  on  the  surface  at  a 
price  that  will  presently  pay  the  whole  first  cost  of 
the  mine.  When  that  is  done,  the  mine  will  stand  him 
in  just  nothing  at  all,  and  all  the  dividends  the  stock- 
holders get  will  be  just  like  so  much  money  found — 
picked  up  from  the  prairie  grass,  I  might  say.  Is 
there  any  danger  in  that  sort  of  thing?  Is  a  share 
of  that  stock  a  doubtful  security  to  the  man  who 
has  already  got  back  the  entire  purchase  price? 
True,  it  pays  twenty  per  cent,  dividends  on  its  face, 
and  that  scares  the  conservative  galoots  in  New  York. 
That's  just  because  they  have  got  it  ground  into  their 
minds  that  high  interest  always  means  poor  security. 
But,  come,     I  want  to  take  you  for  a  drive  around 


TEMPLE  AND  TANDY  229 

Cairo,  to  show  you  what  we  are  doing  here  and  what 
we  are  planning  to  do.  I  think  when  you  see  it 
you'll  know  for  yourself  where  to  put  your  money. 
Can  you  go  with  me  for  a  drive?" 

"Very  gladly.  But  first,  I  want  to  arrange  to 
bring  to  Cairo  what  money  I  have.  I  may  not  want 
to  invest  it  all  here,  but  it  will  be  handy  to  have  it 
here.  I  should  like  to  put  it  into  your  bank  as  a 
deposit.  But  I  must  draw  on  New  York  for  it,  and 
get  you  to  take  my  draft.  Won't  you  direct  your 
cashier  to  telegraph  the  Fourth  National  Bank  of 
New  York,  asking  for  what  amount  my  drafts  on  that 
institution  will  be  honored?  Then,  when  we  get  back 
from  our  drive,  I'll  draw  for  the  money  and  place  it 
on  deposit  with  your  bank,  where  I  can  put  my  hands 
upon  it  when  necessary." 

The  telegram  was  sent,  and  then  Tandy  took  Tem- 
ple in  his  carriage — one  of  the  best  in  Cairo  at  that 
time — and  showed  him  all  there  was  of  resource  in 
the  town,  lecturing,  meanwhile,  on  the  prospects  of 
Cairo  as  a  future  great  commercial  and  manufactur- 
ing center.  He  showed  him  all  there  was  to  be  shown, 
and  then  said  to  him : 

"  Now,  I'm  an  apostle  of  Western  development,  but 
still  more  I'm  an  apostle  of  the  development  of  Cairo. 
I'm  a  bull  on  the  country,  and  a  bull  on  this  city. 
There  is  much  to  be  done,  and  it  will  require  the  in- 
vestment of  a  great  deal  of  money.  But  the  invest- 
ments will  pay  as  nothing  else  promises  to  do.     We 


230         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

must  have  grain  elevators,  and  mills,  and  all  the  rest 
of  it.  We've  two  big  flour  mills  already,  and  there 
will  be  two  or  three  more  within  a  year.  They  must 
have  barrels  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands. 
Now  a  man  of  your  intelligence  must  see  that  empty 
barrels,  being  bulky,  are  costly  things  to  transport 
over  long  distances,  while  the  mills  must  buy  them 
at  the  lowest  possible  price.  Otherwise  they  can't 
sell  flour  in  competition  with  the  mills  of  other 
cities.  So  the  necessity  of  having  a  big  barrel  fac- 
tory here  is  obvious,  and  so  is  the  profit.  I  am  just 
forming  a  company  for  that  purpose.  We  have 
abundant  timber  right  at  hand,  just  across  the  two 
rivers,  in  Missouri  and  Kentucky.  We  can  make 
barrels  at  less  cost  than  they  can  be  had  for  in  any 
other  city,  while  we  have  a  local  market  tl^k  will  be 
unfailing.  The  company  is  capitalized  at  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars,  and  a  good  part  of  it  is  already 
subscribed." 

He  did  not  say  that  none  of  it  had  been  paid  for 
yet,  and  that  he  was  unsuccessfully  trying  to  find 
buyers  for  it. 

"  It's  a  sure  thing.  The  profits  will  be  large  from 
the  beginning,  and  the  stock,  as  soon  as  the  factory  is 
in  operation,  will  jump  up  fifty  per  cent,  at  least. 
If  you  want  a  thousand  or  so  of  it,  I'll  let  you  in  on 
the  ground  floor.     Otherwise,  I'll  take  it  myself." 

"That  impresses  me  very  favorably,"  answered 
Temple  truthfully.     "  It  is  an  enterprise  based  upon 


TEMPLE  AND  TANDY  231 

sound  principles — one  that  offers  a  supply  in  direct 
answer  to  a  demand.  I  shall  probably  decide  to  take 
a  little  of  that  stock,  if  I  can  get  some  other  securi- 
ties to  go  with  it.  But  for  a  part  of  the  money  I 
have  to  invest,  I  must  get  stock  in  some  already  es- 
tablished and  assured  business — I  should  especially 
like  bank  stock,  either  in  your  bank  or  Captain  Hal- 
lam's.     You  see " 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  see.  You  want  a  nest-egg  that  will 
certainly  hatch  out  a  chicken.  I'll  find  it  for  you. 
Let's  leave  that  till  to-morrow.  Anyhow,  I'm  an  ad- 
vocate of  local  investments.  I'm  putting  every  spare 
dollar  I've  got  into  them,  and  I  always  advise  investors 
to  go  into  them.  We're  planning — Hallam  and  I — 
to  set  up  a  gas  plant  here.  The  city  needs  it,  and  it'll 
pay  from  the  word  go.  I'll  tell  you  about  that  to- 
morrow. You  see,  I  want  you  f,o  know  just  what 
we're  doing  and  planning,  and  then  we'll  find  the  best 
places  for  you  to  put  your  money  into.  It's  getting 
late  now,  so  we'll  drive  back  to  the  bank.  I  told  the 
cashier  to  wait  for  us,  though  of  course  it's  after 
banking  hours." 

On  their  return  to  the  bank  each  of  these  men 
felt  that  he  had  "  put  in  a  good  day's  work."  Tandy 
was  sure  that  by  letting  the  young  man  have  a  few 
shares  in  firmly  established  enterprises,  he  could  "  rope 
him  in,"  as  he  phrased  it  in  his  mind,  for  the  purchase 
of  some  more  doubtful  things.  Temple,  in  his  turn, 
was  convinced  that  by  buying  into  some  of  Tandy's 


232         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

more  speculative  enterprises,  he  could  ultimately  se- 
cure the  shares  he  had  been  set  to  buy  in  the  X  Na- 
tional. 

The  telegraphic  reply  from  the  New  York  Bank 
had  been  received  and  was  altogether  satisfactory. 
So,  late  as  it  was,  Temple  drew  on  New  York  for 
twelve  thousand  dollars,  and  with  the  draft,  opened 
a  deposit  account  for  that  amount  in  Tandy's  bank. 

Then  he  went  to  his  hotel.  His  first  impulse  was 
to  send  a  message  to  Captain  Will  Hallam,  asking 
whether  he  might  take  the  barrel-factory  stock,  and 
perhaps  some  other  things  of  like  kind,  in  aid  of 
success  in  his  mission,  but  upon  reflection  he  decided 
to  act  upon  his  own  judgment,  without  consultation 
or  advice.  Hallam  had  given  him  a  free  hand,  leav- 
ing him  to  work  out  the  problem  in  his  own  way.  Any 
communication  between  him  and  Hallam,  or  between 
him  and  Duncan,  would  involve  something  of  risk. 
So  he  sat  alone  in  his  hotel  room,  thinking  and 
planning. 

He  did  not  know  or  dream  how  anxious  Tandy  was 
to  draw  him  into  some  of  his  schemes.  He  did  not 
know  that  both  the  barrel  factory  and  the  gas  enter- 
prise had  recently  become  veritable  white  elephants  on 
Tandy's  hands.  He  did  not  know  that  Tandy — in 
his  eagerness  to  overreach  Hallam — had  "stretched 
himself  out  like  a  string,"  as  Hallam  picturesquely 
put  it — by  investing  more  money  in  these  two  com- 
panies, and  several  others,  than  he  could  just  then 


TEMPLE  AND  TANDY  233 

spare.  Especially,  he  did  not  know  that  Hallam  had 
himself  completely  organized  and  capitalized  both  a 
gas  company  and  a  barrel  company,  and  that  Tandy's 
two  companies  represented  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to 
rival  enterprises  into  which  Hallam  had  "breathed 
the  breath  of  life." 

He  was  surprised,  therefore,  when  a  bell  boy 
brought  him  Tandy's  card,  as  he  sat  there  in  his  lonely 
hotel  room,  planning  the  morrow's  campaign. 

"  I  thought  you  might  be  lonely,"  said  the  banker, 
as  he  was  ushered  into  the  room,  "  seeing  that  you're 
a  stranger  in  town.     So  I  have  dropped  in  for  a  chat." 

The  "chat"  very  quickly  fell  into  financial  chan- 
nels, and  it  did  not  proceed  far  before  shrewd  Richard 
Temple  discovered  some  things  of  advantage  to  him- 
self. Among  the  things  discovered  was  the  fact  that 
Tandy  was  somewhat  over  anxious  to  hasten  the  busi- 
ness in  hand.  Apparently  he  feared  that  Temple 
might  fall  in  with  other  advisers.  He  seemed  anxious 
to  arrive  at  conclusions  in  a  hurry,  Temple  thought, 
and  the  thought  served  at  once  to  put  him  on  his 
guard  and  to  give  him  his  opportunity.  He  listened 
with  every  indication  of  interest  to  all  that  Tandy 
had  to  say  concerning  the  two  still  unlaunched  enter- 
prizes — the  barrel  factory  and  the  gas  company.  He 
asked  interested  questions  concerning  them,  and  ven- 
tured the  suggestion  that  the  proposed  capitalization 
of  the  gas  company  was  too  small  to  admit  of  the  best 
results. 


234         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"  As  an  engineer,"  he  said,  "  I  know  something  of 
the  cost  of  digging  trenches  and  laying  mains,  and 
it  seems  to  me  that  in  order  to  equip  itself  for  busi- 
ness this  company  will  need  a  good  deal  more  money 
than  you  plan  to  put  into  it  as  capital  stock." 

"  I  see  your  point,"  Tandy  answered  quickly,  "  and 
in  any  ordinary  case  it  would  be  sound  enough,  though 
of  course  a  company  of  that  kind  doesn't  depend 
upon  its  subscribed  capital  alone,  or  even  chiefly  for 
its  working  capital.  It  is  the  practice  in  establishing 
such  companies  to  issue  and  sell  bonds  enough  to  cover 
the  cost  of  the  plant,  or  very  nearly  that.  The 
profits  are  so  certain  and  so  great  that  the  bonds — 
even  at  so  low  a  figure  as  five  per  cent,  interest — go 
off  like  hot  cakes.  But  that  isn't  all.  Here  in  Cairo 
we  shall  hardly  have  to  bond  the  company  at  all. 
You  see  we  shall  have  almost  no  engineering  work  to 
do.  In  other  cities  a  gas  company  must  dig  deep 
trenches — often  through  solid  rock — in  which  to  lay 
its  mains.  Here  in  Cairo  we  shall  have  no  digging 
at  all  to  do.  You  observed,  as  we  drove  to-day,  that 
the  city  is  built  upon  a  tongue  of  very  low-lying 
ground.  A  levee,  forty-five  feet  high,  has  been  built 
around  it,  and  contractors  are  now  busily  filling  in 
the  streets  so  as  to  raise  them  nearly,  though  not 
quite,  to  the  grade  of  the  levee.  Every  street  is  a 
long  embankment.  Now,  when  we  come  to  lay  our 
mains,  we  shall  put  them  along  the  sides  of  these  em- 
bankments, with  no  cost  at  all  for  digging." 


TEMPLE  AND  TANDY  235 

So  Tandy  went  on  for  an  hour.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  Temple  felt  himself  sufficiently  sure  of  his 
ground  to  venture  a  little  further: 

"I  am  inclined  to  think,"  he  said,  "that  I  shall 
want  to  take  at  least  a  little  of  the  barrel-factory  stock 
to-morrow,  and  possibly  I  may  subscribe  for  some  of 
the  gas  stock  also ;  of  that  I  am  not  yet  sure.  But 
before  I  take  either,  I  must  invest  four  or  five  thousand 
dollars  in  something  absolutely  secure.  I  have  been 
going  over  the  latest  reports  of  your  bank,  and  the 
other  one — Hallam's — and  they  have  impressed  me 
with  the  conviction  that  the  very  best  and  safest  in- 
vestment a  man  of  small  means,  like  myself,  can  make 
in  this  town,  is  in  bank  stock.  This  city  is  a  point  at 
which  so  many  lines  of  travel  and  traffic  converge,  that 
the  exchange  business  itself  must  be  sufficient  to  pay 
a  bank's  expenses.  In  fact  it  pays  more,  as  the  re- 
ports show.  And  then  there  is  the  larger  business — 
lending  money  on  sound  enterprises,  financing  indus- 
trial companies,  and  especially  advancing  money  on 
bills  of  lading  for  goods  in  transit.  In  view  of  all  this 
it  surprises  me  to  learn  that  the  stock  in  the  two 
banks  here  stands  only  a  trifle  above  par." 

"Oh,  that's  because  of  two  things.  People  here 
have  got  it  into  their  heads  that  anything  less  than 
ten  or  twelve  per  cent.,  as  a  return  for  money  invested, 
is  ridiculously  small.  So  they  don't  want  bank  stocks. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  eastern  capitalists  have  got 
it  into  their  heads  that  anything  which  pays  more 


236         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

than  four  or  five  per  cent,  must  be  risky,  and  so  they 
don't  set  up  banks  here,  as  they  surely  would  do  but 
for  their  foolish  timidity.  The  prospect  of  a  big  re- 
turn for  their  money  simply  scares  them  out  of  their 
seven  senses.  So  Hallam's  bank  and  mine  have  a 
monopoly  of  as  pretty  a  business  as  you'll  find  in  a 
day's  walk.  Why,  when  the  rush  was  on  last  winter, 
and  twenty  steamboats  a  day  were  leaving  Cairo  with 
full  cargoes — to  say  nothing  of  great  fleets  of  grain 
barges — Hallam  and  I  both  went  to  New  York  with 
our  pockets  full  of  government  bonds,  and  borrowed 
money  on  them  for  sixty  or  ninety  days.  We  paid 
six  per  cent,  per  annum  for  the  money,  and  got  from 
one-half  to  one  per  cent,  a  day  on  most  of  it  by  ad- 
vancing on  grain  drafts,  with  bills  of  lading  attached. 
It  was  as  easy  as  falling  off  a  log,  and  as  safe  as 
insuring  pig-iron  under  water." 

"  I  have  some  notion  of  all  that,"  answered  Temple, 
"and  that's  the  sort  of  investment  I'm  looking  for. 
I  might  take  in  some  more  speculative  things,  but  I 
greatly  want  to  invest  a  few  thousand  dollars  in  the 
stock  of  one  or  other  of  these  two  national  banks. 
Could  you  find  somebody  willing  to  sell?  " 

Tandy  had  expected  this,  and  had  prepared  him- 
self for  it.  But  he  pretended  to  think  for  a  moment 
before  replying.     Then  he  said : 

"  As  to  Hallam's  bank,  it's  useless  to  try.  Hallam 
and  Stafford  own  the  whole  thing,  except  that  they 
have  put  a  share  or  two  into  the  hands  of  members  of 


TEMPLE  AND  TANDY  237 

their  own  families,  just  by  way  of  qualifying  them 
to  serve  as  directors,  as  the  law  requires.  Neither  one 
of  them  would  sell  a  share  for  twice  its  market  price. 
The  same  thing  is  true,  in  a  general  way  at  least,  of 
our  bank.  The  stock  is  so  good  a  thing  that  nobody 
who  has  got  any  of  it  ever  wants  to  part  with  it. 
But  it  has  always  been  our  policy  to  interest  the 
people  in  the  bank  by  letting  them  hold  some  of  its 
stock.  So  a  good  deal  of  it  is  held  in  small  lots 
around  town,  and  now  and  then  one  of  these  is  put 
into  my  hands  for  sale.  I  have  four  shares  now  to 
sell.  It  belongs  to  a  tug  captain  who  is  down  on  his 
luck  just  now,  and  must  sell.  He  wants  more  than 
the  market  price,  but  the  bank  has  lent  him  money 
on  it  nearly  up  to  its  face  value,  and  so  I  can  do 
pretty  much  as  I  please  with  it.  Ordinarily  I  should 
buy  it  myself,  but  I'm  in  so  many  things  just  now, 
and  besides,  I'd  like  to  have  you  with  us." 

Tandy  did  not  say  that  since  he  had  seen  Temple 
in  the  afternoon,  he  had  taken  in  these  four  shares  of 
stock  for  debt,  at  three  per  cent,  below  par,  with  the 
fixed  purpose  of  selling  them  to  Temple  at  three  per 
cent,  above  par. 

"How  many  shares  did  you  say  there  are  of  it?" 
asked  Temple. 

"Four,  if  I  remember  right.  I  really  oughtn't 
to  let  it  slip  through  my  fingers,  but — well,  I'll  tell 
you  what  I'll  do — if  you  care  to  subscribe  for  a  few 
shares  of  the  barrel  company — say  one  or  two  thou- 


238         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

sand  dollars'  worth— I'll  let  you  have  the  bank  stock 
at  a  hundred  and  three. 

Temple  was  eager  to  close  the  bargain,  but  he  reso- 
lutely repressed  his  eagerness.  He  asked  a  score  of 
questions,  as  if  in  doubt,  and  at  last  he  hesitatingly 
agreed  to  make  the  purchase.  The  details  were  to  be 
arranged  on  the  next  day,  and  so  Tandy  took  his 
leave,  and  Temple  lay  awake  all  night,  as  he  had 
done  on  the  night  before. 

At    four    o'clock    the    next    afternoon    Temple 
strolled    into    the    Hallam    office    to    report    results. 
He  threw  the  papers  upon  a  desk  and  sank  into  a 
chair  like  one  exhausted.     He  was  in  fact  almost  in 
a  state  of  collapse.     He  had  not  been  conscious  of 
strain  at  any  time  during  his  negotiations.     He  had, 
indeed,  rather  enjoyed  the  playing  of  such  a  game  of 
wits  with  so  wily  an  adversary  as  Tandy  was.     But 
all  the  while  his  anxiety  to  succeed  in  what  he  had 
undertaken  had  kept  his  nerves  so  tense  that  his  mind 
had  known  no  rest.     All  the  time  he  had  been  pain- 
fully  conscious  that  the  smallest  slip   on  his  part, 
the  smallest  indiscretion,  the  slightest  mistake  in  look, 
or  tone,  or  act,  would  bring  failure  as  a  consequence. 
And  he  had  all  the  time  been  agonizingly  conscious  of 
the  fact  that  no  less  a  thing  than  Guilford  Duncan's 
reputation  was  the  stake  he  played  for — that  Guilford 
Duncan's  entire  future  was  in  his  hands.     There  were 
reasons  more  vital  to  him  than  his  friendship  for  Dun- 
can, for  regarding  success  in  this  matter  as  an  end 


TEMPLE  AND  TANDY  239 

that  must  be  achieved  at  all  hazards,  and  at  all  costs. 
For  years  ago  these  two  had  quarreled  as  rivals  in  love, 
after  being  friends  of  the  closest  sort  from  infancy, 
and  only  Duncan's  great  generosity  of  mind  had  made 
forgiveness  and  reconciliation  possible.  Dick  Tem- 
ple knew  that  in  the  matter  out  of  which  the  quarrel 
grew,  he  had  grievously  wronged  his  friend,  and  that 
knowledge  had  been  to  him  a  veritable  thorn  in  the 
flesh,  robbing  even  such  happiness  as  had  come  to 
him  of  half  its  quality  of  joy.  He  had  longed 
above  all  other  things  for  an  opportunity  to  make 
atonement,  and  that  longing  had  been  intensified 
since  the  meeting  at  the  mine,  by  the  generous  treat- 
ment he  had  received  at  Duncan's  hands.  His  Mary 
shared  it  in  full  measure,  too,  as  she  shared  every 
worthy  impulse  of  his  soul.  It  had  been  a  grief  to 
the  gently  generous  wife  that  the  man  she  loved  must 
live  always  under  so  distressing  an  obligation  to  the 
friend  who  had  so  magnanimously  forgiven. 

When  this  opportunity  of  repayment  came  to  him, 
therefore,  his  first  thought  was  of  Mary.  He  wrote 
to  her  immediately  after  his  first  conference  with  Hal- 
lam,  telling  her  of  the  matter  in  a  way  that  filled  her 
soul  with  gladness  and  fear — gladness  that  the  oppor- 
tunity was  his  at  last,  and  sleepless  fear  lest  he  should 
be  baffled  and  beaten.  So  when  at  last  success  was 
his,  when  he  received  from  Tandy's  hands  the  papers 
that  secured  his  purpose,  his  first  act  was  to  telegraph 
to  Mary  the  message : 


240         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Glory  to  God  in  the  highest!  I  have  paid  my  debt  to 
Guilford  Duncan. 

It  was  five  minutes  later  when  he  entered  the  Hal- 
lam  offices  and  laid  the  papers  before  the  head  of  the 
house,  saying  only: 

"  I've  secured  the  stock."  When  he  sank  into  the 
chair,  Hallam  was  quick  to  see  his  condition. 

"Go  up  to  Duncan's  rooms  and  go  to  bed,"  he 
urged.     "You've  not  been  sleeping." 

Recovering  himself  quickly,  Temple  answered: 

"No,  I  think  I'd  rather  not.  If  you've  no  fur- 
ther use  for  me,  I  think  I'll  go  home  by  the  train  that 
starts  an  hour  hence.  There'll  be  time  enough  be- 
tween now  and  then  for  me  to  render  you  an  account 
of  money  spent,  and  give  you  my  check  for  the  bal- 
ance in  Tandy's  bank.  I  don't  want  to  see  Duncan 
just  now." 

Hallam  understood.  "Very  well,"  he  answered, 
as  Temple  turned  to  a  desk.  "  You've  saved  Duncan, 
and  there's  nothing  more  for  you  to  do  here.  But 
you  must  come  back  for  the  final  grand  tableau  just 
a  week  hence.  I'll  leave  this  stock  in  your  name  till 
then,  and  you  shall  walk  with  me  into  the  stockholders' 
meeting  and  help  me  salivate  old  Napper  Tandy. 
We'll  teach  him  not  to  play  tricks." 

Captain  Hallam  spoke  no  word  of  commendation 
for  the  way  in  which  Temple  had  done  his  work. 
Words  were  unnecessary. 

"  I  hope  I  made  no  mistake  in  subscribing  for  that 


TEMPLE  AND  TANDY  241 

barrel  company  stock,"  said  Temple  as  he  passed  the 
completed  papers  over  to  Hallam.  "  At  any  rate,  I'd 
like  to  keep  that  myself,  if  I  may,  whether  it  ever 
proves  to  be  worth  anything  or  not.  I've  accumu- 
lated enough  money  to  pay  for  it." 

"Oh,  as  to  that,"  answered  Hallam  lightly,  "the 
stock  will  be  good  enough.  I'll  make  it  so  by  taking 
a  majority  interest  in  the  company  and  consolidating 
it  with  my  own.  You  see,  we  simply  must  do  some- 
thing for  Old  Napper  Tandy." 


XXVI 

A  Pact  With  Barbara 

THAT  evening  Guilford  Duncan  was  sum- 
moned to  Hallam's  house  for  supper.  With 
only  Mrs.  Hallam  for  auditor,  Hallam  wished 
to  tell  the  young  man  all  that  had  occurred,  for 
Duncan  had  not  been  permitted  to  know  aught  of  it, 
since  Hallam  had  turned  him  out  of  his  room,  in  order 
that  the  conference  with  Dick  Temple  might  be  a 
strictly  private  one. 

Nor  had  Duncan  seemed  very  greatly  concerned 
to  inquire.  He  had  not  expected  Hallam  and  Temple 
to  succeed  in  accomplishing  anything,  and  at  this 
time  his  fate  was  at  crisis  in  another  and,  to  him,  a 
dearer  way.  His  interview  with  Barbara  had  been 
held,  as  we  know,  at  the  precise  time  when  Hallam 
and  Temple  were  in  consultation  with  regard  to  the 
matter  of  Tandy's  accusation.  In  some  degree,  at 
least,  the  painful  character  of  that  interview  with 
Barbara,  and  its  unsatisfactory  result,  had  dulled 
his  mind  to  the  other  trouble.  In  view  of  Barbara's 
seemingly  final  rejection  of  his  wooing,  he  was  not 
sure  that  he  greatly  cared  what  might  become  of  his 

242 


A   PACT   WITH   BARBARA 

reputation,  or  his  career.  He  was  too  strong  a  man 
in  his  moral  character,  however,  to  remain  long  in  a 
state  of  such  indifference,  but  for  the  time  being  he 
found  it  impossible  to  regard  his  future  as  a  matter 
of  much  consequence,  now  that  Barbara  refused  to 
share  that  future  with  him. 

"  There  is  still  one  more  chance,"  he  reflected,  "  one 
more  interview  with  Barbara,  one  more  hope  that  I 
may  win  her.  If  that  fails,  the  other  thing  won't 
matter  much.  I'll  horsewhip  Tandy  and  then  go 
away.  No,  I  won't  go  away.  I  won't  desert  in  the 
presence  of  the  enemy.  I  won't — oh,  I  don't  know 
what  I  will  or  won't  do.  All  that  must  wait  till  I 
know  my  fate  with  Barbara." 

This  was  on  the  morning  after  his  evening  with 
Barbara — the  morning  on  which  Temple  first  made 
acquaintance  with  Tandy.  Duncan  was  sitting  idly 
in  his  office,  mechanically  toying  with  a  paper  cutter. 
Presently  he  overturned  the  inkstand,  spilling  its 
contents  over  some  legal  papers  that  he  had  drawn 
upon  the  day  before. 

"That's  fortunate!"  he  ejaculated,  as  with  blot- 
ting pads  he  sought  to  save  what  he  could  of  the  docu- 
ments. "  It  gives  me  something  better  to  do  than 
sit  here  idly  mooning.  Those  papers  must  go  off  by 
the  afternoon  mail,  and  I  must  rewrite  them  first." 

He  set  to  work  at  once,  and  close  application  to  the 
task  for  several  hours  brought  him  into  a  healthier 
condition  of  mind.     When  he  had  finished  the  task 


244         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

and  had  taken  the  papers  to  the  postoffice  he  realized 
that  his  state  of  mind  had  been  a  morbid  one.  He 
realized,  too,  that  he  must  end  the  suspense  as  quickly 
as  possible,  in  order  that  he  might  take  up  work  and 
grow  sound  of  soul  again. 

Returning  to  his  office  he  sent  a  note  to  Barbara : 

I  shall  go  to  see  you  to-night,  unless  you  forbid.  I  must 
hear  what  more  you  have  to  tell  me,  and  I  must  in  my  turn  tell 
you  something  of  myself.  When  that  is  done,  I  shall  renew 
my  efforts  to  win  you  to  myself.  Please  send  me  word  that  I 
may  come. 

For  answer,  he  got  the  single  word  "  Come,"  writ- 
ten in  the  middle  of  a  page,  without  address  or  signa- 
ture. Thus  it  came  about  that  while  Temple  was  sit- 
ting in  his  hotel  room,  in  negotiation  with  Tandy- 
over  a  matter  that  involved  Duncan's  future  more 
vitally  than  any  other  event  had  ever  done,  Duncan 
himself  sat  with  Barbara,  trying  to  adjust  another 
matter  which  seemed  to  him  of  even  greater  conse- 
quence. 

Barbara  had  her  emotions  in  leash,  now.  Without 
hesitation,  and  with  a  bravely  controlled  utterance, 
she  went  at  once  to  the  marrow  of  the  matter. 

"  I  told  you,"  she  began,  "  that  I  am  the  daughter 
of  a  Thief.  My  father  was  trusted  absolutely  by  my 
grandfather.  He  betrayed  the  trust.  He  made  use 
of  his  authority  as  a  member  of  the  banking  house, 
not  only  to  wreck  it  in  speculation,  but  also  to  rob  all 
the  people  who  had  entrusted  their  money  to  it.     I 


A  PACT  WITH   BARBARA  245 

don't  understand  such  matters  very  well,  but,  at  any 
rate,  my  father  ruined  the  firm  and  robbed  its  cus- 
tomers. At  a  single  stroke  he  reduced  his  father  to 
poverty  and  forever  disgraced  his  honorable  name. 
When  he  found  that  the  facts  must  become  known 
at  once,  my  father  went  home  and  blew  his  brains 
out.  I  was  born  that  day,  and  my  mother  died  of 
shock  and  grief  within  the  hour.  My  poor  grand- 
father lived  for  a  month,  without  speaking  a  word  to 
anybody.    Then  he  quit  living." 

"  It  is  a  terribly  sad  story,"  said  Duncan.  "  I 
should  not  have  let  you  tell  it,  poor  child." 

"  Oh,  but  I  was  obliged  to  tell  you,"  she  interrupted. 
"  It  was  my  duty.  You  see — well,  you  have  been  so 
good  to  me,  and  I  am  obliged  to  say  '  no '  to  what  you 
asked  me  before  you  knew  this  horrible  thing.  It 
wouldn't  have  been  fair  just  to  say  *  no,'  and  not  tell 
you  of  a  thing  that  explains,  a  thing  that  must  make 
you  wish  you  hadn't  asked  me  that." 

"But  it  does  not  make  me  wish  anything  of  the 
kind,  Barbara.  It  makes  me  more  eager  than  ever  to 
win  you,  in  order  that  I  may  devote  my  life  to  the 
loving  task  of  making  you  forget  the  horror  of  this 
thing.  Oh,  Barbara!  I  never  loved  you  half  so 
madly  as  I  love  you  now.  And  you  love  me.  I 
know  it,  but  you  must  say  it.  You  love  me,  Barbara ! 
Say  it!     Say  it— now!" 

The  girl  hesitated  for  no  more  than  a  moment, 
while  her  whole  body  quivered. 


246        A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"God  help  me!"  she  said  then,  "I  do  love  you! 
I  love  you  too  well  to  let  you  link  your  life  with  mine, 
to  let  you  take  upon  yourself  the  shadow  of  my 
disgrace." 

"But  you  have  no  disgrace.  You  are  innocent. 
The  fault  is  not  yours  that  your  father  betrayed  his 
trust  a  score  of  years  ago — before  you  were  born." 

"  Listen ! "  she  interrupted  with  passionate  determi- 
nation. "  If  you  were  to  marry  me  I  should  become 
the  mother  of  your  children.  That  would  make  them 
the  grandchildren  of  a  Thief." 

The  two  were  standing  now. 

"  I  want  you  to  sit  down  while  I  answer  you,  Bar- 
bara," said  Duncan,  with  almost  unimaginable  ten- 
derness in  his  tone.  "  No,  not  in  that  straight-backed 
chair,  for  I  want  you  to  listen  to  all  I  have  to  say,  and 
to  be  at  ease  while  you  listen.  Sit  here,"  pushing  an 
easy  chair  forward,  "sit  here  where  you  can  see  my 
face  as  I  speak.  I  want  you  to  see  in  my  eyes  the 
sincerity  of  my  soul." 

Barbara  obeyed  and  listened. 

"  I  was  born  and  brought  up,"  he  said,  "  in  a  region 
where  all  the  old  traditions  had  full  sway  over  the 
minds  of  men  and  women,  enslaving  them.  During 
four  years  of  war  I  learned  much,  but  I  unlearned  far 
more.  I  learned  to  look  facts  in  the  face,  and  to  ac- 
cept them  at  their  just  value.  I  learned  to  judge  of 
others  and  of  their  worth  by  what  they  are,  not  by 
what  their  fathers  or  grandfathers  may  have  been. 


A  PACT  WITH   BARBARA  247 

I  unlearned  the  false  teaching  of  tradition  that 
aught  else  than  personal  character  and  personal  con- 
duct goes  to  the  making  up  of  any  human  being's 
account  with  his  fellow  man.  I  had  a  true  democracy 
forced  upon  me  when  I  saw  men  of  the  humblest  ex- 
traction winning  high  place  for  themselves,  and  being 
set  to  command  men  of  the  loftiest  lineage — all  be- 
cause of  personal  character  and  fitness,  and  in  spite 
of  their  lack  of  caste.  No  sane  man  can  contemplate 
the  character  and  career  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  for  example, 
without  finding  in  it  an  object  lesson  in  democracy 
which  should  make  a  very  laughing-stock  of  all  the 
fables  of  aristocratic  tradition.  I  tell  you  truly  that 
I  have  put  all  those  things  behind  me,  as  all  Ameri- 
cans must  who  truly  believe  in  the  fundamental 
principles  of  our  Republic.  Every  man  must  be  ac- 
cepted for  what  he  is,  not  for  what  his  father  or  his 
grandfather  may  have  been.  We  read  that  lesson  in 
the  lives  of  such  men  as  Ben  Franklin,  and  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  Grant,  and  a  score  of  other  notables. 
We  read  it  even  more  clearly  in  everyday  life.  No 
banker  extends  credit  to  a  worthless  man  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  born  to  high  social  repute.  No 
banker  withholds  credit  from  a  man  of  integrity  be- 
cause his  father  was  not  to  be  trusted.  All  day, 
every  day,  men  everywhere  are  acting  upon  a  clear 
perception  of  the  truth  that  each  human  being  must 
be  judged  by  what  he  is,  and  not  by  what  some  other 
person  has  been* 


248       A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"  Now  I  know  you,  Barbara,  for  what  you  are,  and 
I  love  you  for  that  alone.  What  your  father  may 
have  done  or  been,  twenty  years  ago,  is  to  me  a 
matter  of  entire  indifference,  except  that  the  knowl- 
edge of  it  gives  you  pain  and  sorrow.  It  makes  no 
difference  to  me;  it  in  no  way  alters  or  lessens  my 
love  for  you,  and  it  never  will.  Knowing  it  all,  I 
am  more  earnest  than  ever  in  my  purpose  to  make 
you  my  wife  if  I  can  persuade  you  to  that  after  I 
have  told  you  something  about  myself  that  may  very 
justly  seem  to  you  a  real  bar  to  my  hopes." 

"Go  on,  please,"  said  the  girl.  "Tell  me  what 
you  will,  but  I  shall  never  believe  anything  ill  of 
you.     I  know  better." 

"  Thank  you  for  saying  that,  dear,"  he  responded 
with  a  tremor  in  his  tone.  "But  unhappily  others 
may  believe  it.  If  they  do,  then  the  career  you  have 
expected  for  me  must  be  at  an  end  at  once.  My 
reputation  for  integrity  will  be  gone  for  good,  and 
I  must  be  content  to  surrender  all  my  ambitions. 
That  is  why  I  must  tell  you  of  this  ugly  thing  before 
again  asking  you  to  be  my  wife." 

"Go  on,"  she  said  again.  "But  I  shall  believe 
nothing  bad  of  you,  even  though  an  angel  should  tell 
me." 

"  I  told  you  the  other  night,"  he  said,  "  that  I  had 
quarreled  with  Napper  Tandy;  that  he  had  tried 
to  tempt  me  with  a  money  bribe  to  do  an  infamous 
thing.     He  now  gives  it  out  that  it  was  I  who  pro- 


A  PACT   WITH   BARBARA  U9 

posed  the  bribe;  that  I  went  to  him  with  an  offer  to 
do  that  infamous  thing  for  hire,  and  that  he  indig- 
nantly rejected  the  offer." 

"  He  lies ! "  broke  in  the  girl. 

"Yes,  he  lies,  of  course,"  answered  Duncan,  "but 
I  have  no  way  of  proving  it.  He  and  I  were  alone 
and  in  his  house.  There  were  no  witnesses.  How, 
then,  am  I  ever  to  clear  my  name  of  so  foul  an  ac- 
cusation ?  " 

"  There  is  no  need,"  answered  the  girl.  M  Nobody 
who  knows  you  will  ever  believe  the  story.  Captain 
Hallam  would  not  think  it  worth  asking  a  question 
about." 

"No,  Captain  Hallam  would  not  for  a  moment 
think  of  such  a  thing  as  even  possible.  But  that  is 
because  he  knows  me  as  few  other  men  do  or  ever  will. 
But  the  accusation  troubles  him,  because  he  knows 
that  other  people  will  believe  it.  He  and  Richard 
Temple  are  at  this  moment  busy  trying  to  find  some 
way  of  clearing  my  name  of  the  foul  slander.  They 
will  do  all  that  two  loyal  and  sagacious  friends  can 
do  to  accomplish  that  purpose.  But  I  cannot  im- 
agine any  way  in  which  they  can  succeed." 

"  What  is  it  they  are  doing  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  know ;  they  have  refused  to  tell  me.  I 
only  know  that  they  can  never  succeed." 

"Oh,  you  must  not  think  that.  You  don't  know 
what  wonders  Captain  Hallam  can  work  when  he  is 
in   earnest.     You   must   have   hope   and   confidence. 


250         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Besides,  nobody  who  knows  you  will  ever  believe  such 
a  story  as  that.  Your  enemies  will  pretend  to  be- 
lieve it,  and  for  a  time  the  people  who  love  to  gossip 
will  repeat  it  to  each  other.  But  you  will  live  it 
down.  Every  act  of  your  life  will  contradict  the  lie, 
and  Tandy's  reputation  is  not  of  a  kind  to  lead 
sensible  people  to  believe  his  falsehood  when  you  have 
set  the  truth  against  it.  You  are  depressed  and 
despondent  now.     The  mood  is  unworthy  of  you." 

"  Tell  me  what  I  should  do." 

"First  of  all  you  should  act  like  the  brave,  strong 
man  that  you  are.  You  should  either  take  this  slander 
by  the  throat  and  strangle  it  by  publishing  a  simple, 
direct  statement  of  the  facts,  or  you  should  ignore 
it  altogether,  as  a  thing  too  absurd  to  need  even  a 
denial.  Wait  till  you  see  what  Captain  Hallam  and 
Mr.  Temple  succeed  in  doing,  and  then  act  as  seems 
best.  But  in  any  case,  you  must  be  strong  and 
courageous.  No  other  mood  belongs  to  such  a  man 
as  you."  i 

Duncan  looked  her  full  in  the  face  for  a  space 
before  speaking.     Then  he  said : 

"  And  yet  you  say  you  have  no  gift  to  help  me — 
that  if  you  were  my  wife  you  would  be  a  drag  upon 
me!  Oh,  Barbara,  you  cannot  know  how  greatly  I 
need  the  strength  that  the  sympathy  and  counsel  of 
such  a  woman  as  you  are  must  give  to  the  man  who 
loves  and  wins  her.  You  have  in  this  hour  rescued  me 
from  despondency;  you  have  made  me  strong  again; 


A  PACT  WITH  BARBARA  251 

you  have  shown  me  my  duty,  and  inspired  me  with 
resolution  to  do  it  manfully." 

"  I  am  very  glad,"  she  answered. 

"  Then  promise  me  that  you  will  stand  by  my  side 
always.  Let  me  give  you  the  right  to  help.  Say 
that  you  will  be  my  wife ! " 

His  voice  was  full  of  tender  pleading  and  for  a 
moment  the  girl  hesitated.     Finally  she  said: 

"I  think  I  know  how  to  answer  now,  but  you 
mustn't  interrupt.  I  feel  as  though  I  couldn't  stand 
much  this  evening." 

"  I  will  not  interrupt.     I  am  too  eager  to  hear." 

"  I  think  I  have  a  plan — for  you  and  me.  I  still 
think  what  I  thought  before — when  I  said  'no.'  I 
still  think  you  ought  to  have  some  better  woman  for 
your  wife,  some  woman  more  nearly  your  equal,  some 
woman  who  could  help  you  to  win  a  great  place  for 
yourself  in  the  world  and  could  herself  fill  the  place 
of  a  great  man's  wife  with  dignity.  You  ought  to 
marry  a  woman  who  knows,  oh,  ever  so  much  that  I 
shall  never  know — a  woman  that  you  need  never  be 
ashamed  to  introduce  as  your  wife.  No,  don't  inter- 
rupt ! "  she  exclaimed,  seeing  that  he  was  on  the  point 
of  doing  so.  "  I  know  what  you  would  say,  and  that 
is  the  only  thing  that  makes  me  doubt  my  own  con- 
viction about  these  matters.  It  seems  to  me  a  wonder- 
ful thing  that  such  a  man  as  you  should  care  for 
such  a  woman  as  I  am,  but  the  fact  that  you  do  care 
for  me  almost  makes  me  think  sometimes  that  maybe 


252         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

after  all  I  misjudge  myself,  and  that  you  are  right. 
It  seems  so  hard  to  believe  you  wrong.  Now,  I  must 
be  perfectly  frank,  because  I  know  no  other  way  of 
saying  what  I  must.  I  have  confessed  that  I  love 
you.  You  compelled  me  to  do  that.  If  I  were  sure 
of  my  capacity  to  make  you  happy,  not  just  for  a 
little  while,  but  throughout  all  your  life,  I  would  say 
1  yes  '  to  the  questions  you  have  asked.  But  I  mustn't 
make  any  mistake  that  might  spoil  your  life,  and  so 
I  must  not  say  'yes'  just  now,  at  least,  and  you  will 
not  let  me  say  'no.'  I  am  still  very  young,  as  you 
know.  You,  too,  are  young  enough  to  wait.  So  I 
think  we'll  leave  both  the  *  yes '  and  the  '  no '  unsaid 
for  a  long  time  to  come — for  a  year,  perhaps — long 
enough,  at  any  rate,  for  both  of  us  to  find  out  which 
of  us  is  right.  During  that  time  we  must  be  the 
very  best  of  friends.  You  must  tell  me  everything 
that  concerns  you,  so  that  I  may  practice  helping  you, 
and  find  out  whether  I  can  really  do  it  or  not.  If 
you  find  that  I  can't  you  shall  be  perfectly  free  to 
go  away  from  me.  If  I  find  that  I  can't,  then  I'll 
say  '  no '  and  stick  to  it." 

Duncan  was  disposed  to  plead  for  better  terms,  but 
the  little  lady  had  fully  made  up  her  mind  and  would 
accept  no  modification  of  the  treaty.  Duncan  had 
no  choice  but  to  accept  an  arrangement  which, 
after  all,  had  much  of  joy  and  still  more  of  promise 
in  it. 

As  they  were  on  the  point  of  parting,  Barbara — 


A   PACT   WITH   BARBARA  253 

with  something  like  a  struggle — made  an  addition  to 
the  compact. 

"  If  that  slander  sticks  to  you,  Guilford,  I'll  marry 
you  at  once  and  give  it  the  lie." 

What  could  the  warm-blooded  young  man  do  but 
kiss  her  with  fervor? 

"  Surely  you  will  forgive  me,"  he  began  in  fear, 
lest  he  had  offended. 

"  I  don't  mind — for  once.  But  you  mustn't  do 
that  again  till — well,  while  we  continue  to  be  just 
friends." 


XXVII 

Mrs.   Hallam  Hears  News 

AS  Guilford  Duncan  sat  late  that  night,  re- 
calling the  events  of  the  evening,  he  felt  him- 
^self  more  and  more  nearly  satisfied  with  the 
outcome  of  his  wooing.  It  was  true,  of  course,  that 
Barbara  had  not  promised  to  become  his  wife,  as  he 
had  hoped  that  she  might  do,  but  at  any  rate  she  had 
confessed  her  love  for  him  in  a  way  that  left  nothing 
to  conjecture.  With  such  a  woman,  he  reflected,  love 
is  never  lightly  given,  and  once  given  it  can  never 
be  withdrawn. 

Moreover,  as  he  reflected  upon  the  compact,  he  saw 
how  certainly  the  close  and  intimate  friendship  for 
which  it  provided  must  daily  and  hourly  draw  the  two 
lovers  closer  and  closer  together,  making  each  of  them 
more  and  more  necessary  to  the  other.  In  brief, 
there  was  so  much  that  was  satisfactory  in  the  com- 
pact that  he  put  aside  all  the  rest  as  "not  worth 
worrying  over." 

As  he  realized  the  extent  of  his  success  in  his  woo- 
ing he  planned  to  perfect  it  in  a  hundred  ways.     He 

254 


MRS.    HALLAM   HEARS    NEWS        255 

resolved  to  make  every  possible  opportunity  for  Bar- 
bara to  help  him,  in  order  that  she  might  learn  how 
helpful  she  could  be.  He  determined  to  acquaint 
her  with  all  his  affairs,  in  the  utmost  detail,  in  order 
that  she  might  make  herself  more  and  more  a  part  of 
his  life.  His  first  thought  was  that  he  would  with- 
hold from  her  knowledge  everything  that  annoyed  or 
distressed  him,  thus  sparing  her  all  that  he  could  of 
pain,  while  telling  her  freely  of  every  joyous  thing. 
But  he  quickly  saw  how  unfair  that  would  be,  and  how 
unlike  what  such  a  woman  would  desire.  He  had 
begun  to  catch  something  of  Barbara's  own  spirit, 
and  to  know  that  any  reserves  with  her  now  would  be 
a  cruel  wrong  to  her  loving  desire  for  a  helpful  share 
in  his  life. 

"  I  will  be  as  frank  with  her,"  he  resolved,  "  as  if 
she  were  already  my  wife.  She  shall  share  my  sor- 
rows as  well  as  my  joys.  And  what  a  comfort  her 
sympathy  will  be!" 

He  slept  little  that  night,  yet  on  the  morrow  he 
went  to  his  work  with  a  buoyancy  of  spirit  such  as  he 
had  not  known  since  that  evening  when  he  had  first 
declared  his  love. 

It  was  in  this  mood  of  elation  and  hopefulness  that 
he  went  to  the  Hallams'  an  hour  before  the  supper 
time.  He  did  not  yet  know  what  Hallam  and  Temple 
had  been  trying  to  do,  and  of  course  he  knew  nothing 
of  the  success  they  had  achieved.  But  in  his  present 
mood  he  was  optimistic  enough  to  hope  for  some  good 


256         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

result.  He  thought  he  might  meet  Temple  at  supper 
if  his  work,  whatever  it  was,  had  been  finished,  and 
when  he  found  that  his  friend  was  neither  present  nor 
expected,  he  satisfied  himself  with  the  reflection  that 
the  task  Temple  had  undertaken  was  very  probably 
one  requiring  a  good  deal  more  time  than  had  elapsed 
since  he  began  it.  A  little  later  he  got  more  definite 
information. 

"Temple  isn't  to  be  with  us,"  he  half  said,  half 
asked,  after  the  greetings  were  over. 

"No,"  answered  Captain  Will.  "He  has  gone 
back  to  the  mines.  He  is  rather  done  up  with  the 
work  and  anxiety  and  loss  of  sleep.  I  tried  to  make 
him  take  possession  of  your  rooms  this  afternoon,  for 
a  straight-away  sleep,  but  he  thought  he'd  rather  go 
back  to  his  wife  till  the  tenth.  He'll  be  here,  how- 
ever, in  time  to  assist  at  the  grand  finale,  as  the  show 
people  call  it." 

"  I'm  afraid  I  don't  understand,"  said  Duncan  with 
a  look  of  inquiry. 

"Why,  there's  to  be  a  meeting  of  the  stockholders 
of  the  X  National  on  the  tenth,  you  know." 

"I  didn't  know.     But  what  of  it?" 

"  Why,  only  that  your  friend  Temple  wants  to  be 
there,  when  he  and  I  march  into  the  meeting  con- 
trolling a  majority  interest  and  elect  a  board  of 
directors  for  old  Napper  Tandy,  leaving  him  com- 
pletely out  of  it.  Not  a  word  about  that,  however, 
to  anybody,  till  the  time  comes.     We  want  to  add  to 


MRS.  HALLAM  HEARS  NEWS  257 
the  dramatic  effect  by  making  the  thing  a  complete 
surprise." 

If  Captain  Will  Hallam  had  been  a  robust  boy  of 
ten,  chewing  upon  a  particularly  toothsome  morsel, 
he  could  not  have  shown  a  greater  relish  for  what  was 
in  his  mouth  than  he  did  for  these  sentences  as  he 
uttered  them.  His  manner  had  all  of  active  satis- 
faction in  it  that  an  eager  card  player  manifests  when 
he  saves  a  doubtful  game  by  throwing  down  a  final 
and  unsuspected  trump  at  the  end  of  a  hand  that  has 
seemed  to  be  lost. 

But  Duncan  was  still  mystified,  and  in  answer  to 
his  questions  Captain  Hallam  explained. 

"When  you  got  yourself  into  trouble  by  monkey- 
ing with  the  accentuations  of  a  buzz  saw,"  he  said, 
"I  could  see  only  one  way  out,  and  that  was  to  put 
you  into  a  position  where  even  the  disembodied  spirit 
of  Calumny  itself  could  not  pretend  to  believe  old 
Napper  Tandy's  yarn.  You  know  Tandy  is  fond  of 
playing  tricks,  especially  upon  me,  and  as  the  presi- 
dent and  controlling  spirit  of  a  rather  strong  bank, 
he  has  been  able  to  give  me  a  good  deal  of  trouble 
now  and  then.  A  year  ago  Stafford  and  I  decided 
that  it  might  some  day  be  handy  for  us  to  control 
a  majority  of  the  stock  in  Tandy's  bank.  There  was 
a  good  deal  of  it  lying  about  loose — that  is  to  say, 
a  number  of  people  held  little  blocks  of  it,  ranging 
from  one  share  to  five.  All  of  these  people  were  more 
or  less  under  Tandy's  influence,  and  all  of  them  were 


258         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

in  the  habit  of  giving  him  proxies  to  vote  their  stock 
or  else  themselves  going  into  the  stockholders'  meet- 
ing and  voting  as  he  desired.  Stafford  and  I  quietly 
set  about  buying  up  this  loose  stock — through  other 
people,  of  course,  so  that  we  shouldn't  appear  in  the 
matter.  We  had  got  forty-eight  per  cent,  of  it,  when 
you  got  yourself  into  trouble  with  Tandy.  It 
occurred  to  me  that  if  we  could  get  three  or  four  more 
shares  and  emphasize  our  confidence  in  you  by  making 
you  president  of  Tandy's  own  bank,  and  turning  him 
out  to  grass,  he  might  see  the  point  and  stop  his  lies. 
I  flatter  myself  that  Stafford  and  I  are  pretty  well 
known  all  over  the  West  and  among  bankers  in  the 
East.  We  are  not  at  all  generally  regarded  as  a 
pair  of  sublimated  idiots — which  same  we  should  cer- 
tainly be  if  we  deliberately  made  a  bank  president 
out  of  a  young  man  whose  integrity  was  open  to  any 
possibility  of  suspicion.  Now,  don't  be  in  a  hurry ! " 
— seeing  that  Duncan  was  eager  to  ask  questions,  or 
to  express  his  appreciation  of  Captain  Hallam's  in- 
terest in  himself — "don't  be  in  a  hurry  and  don't 
interrupt.  Let  me  tell  you  the  whole  story.  At  first 
I  didn't  see  any  possible  way  in  which  to  secure  the 
three  shares,  without  which  I  could  do  nothing.  I 
took  pains  to  have  the  stock  register  of  the  bank  ex- 
amined. I  found  that  Tandy  himself  and  the  mem- 
bers of  his  immediate  family  owned  forty-eight  shares, 
and  that  four  more  belonged  to  Kennedy,  the  tug 
captain  whom  you  discharged  after  calling  him  by  a 


MRS.   HALLAM   HEARS   NEWS       259 

picturesque  variety  of  pet  names.     Of  course  it  was  of 
no  use  to  approach  Kennedy,  even  through  an  out- 
sider, as  he  is  in  Tandy's  employ  now,  and  very  deeply 
in  Tandy's  debt.     I  must  explain  that,  as  Stafford 
and  I  had  bought  stock  through  agents  of  our  own, 
we  had  kept  our  hands  concealed  by  leaving  the  sev- 
eral shares  nominally  in  the  hands  of  the  men  we  had 
employed  to  buy  them   and  instructing  those  men 
to  go  on  voting  the  stock  in  whatever  way  Tandy 
wished.     This    made    Tandy    feel    perfectly    secure 
of  his  control  of  the  bank.     Even  if  he  had  sold  out 
half   his   own    interest    he    would   have   felt   secure, 
seeing  that  all  the  floating  stock  was  within  his  voting 
control.     You  see  I'm  a  rather  good-natured  man,  on 
the  whole,  and  I  never  like  to  make  a  man  feel  un- 
comfortable unless  I  must.     When  your  trouble  arose 
I  thought  I  saw  that  there  was  nothing  for  it  but 
to  make  a  strike  for  some  of  Tandy's  own  stock.     I 
didn't  much  believe  the  thing  could  be  done,  but  I've 
seen  so  many  miracles  worked  in  my  time  that  I 
believe  in  them.     You  sent  for  Temple — and  by  the 
way,  he's  a  fellow  that's  built  from  the  ground  up — 
and  I  set  him  at  work.     I  told  him  what  we  wanted 
done  and  why,  but  I  couldn't  tell  him  how  to  do  it, 
because  I  didn't  know.     I  gave  him  a  free  hand,  and 
left  him  to  use  his  own  wits.     As  they  happened  to 
be  particularly  good  wits,  he  did  the  trick  within  less 
than  two  days.     He  managed  to  buy  Kennedy's  four 
shares,  not  from  Kennedy,  but  from  Tandy  himself. 


260         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

so  that  now  when  the  stockholders'  meeting  comes,  I'll 
march  in,  representing  the  two  shares  that  I'm  known 
to  own,  and  Temple  will  be  with  me,  holding  proxies 
for  all  the  rest  of  mine  and  Stafford's  stock.  We'll 
vote  fifty-two  against  forty-eight.  We'll  name  all  the 
directors,  and  they  will  make  you  president  at  once. 
I'll  put  some  shares  in  your  hands  to  qualify  you, 
but  you  ought  actually  to  own  at  least  ten  shares  in 
your  own  right.     Have  you  got  any  money  loose?  " 

Captain  Hallam  knew  very  well  that  Duncan  had 
a  sufficient  deposit  balance  in  the  Hallam  bank  to 
cover  the  suggested  purchase,  but  he  wanted  to  fore- 
stall and  prevent  the  expression  of  Duncan's  thanks. 
Hence  his  question,  and  hence,  also,  the  look  he  cast 
in  Mrs.  Hallam's  direction,  in  obedience  to  which 
that  gracious  and  sagacious  gentlewoman  broke  at 
once  and  insistently  into  the  conversation. 

"Now,  if  you  two  men  have  quite  finished  with 
business,"  she  said,  "  I  want  a  small  share  of  attention 
on  my  own  part." 

"Will  you  excuse  me  for  a  little  while,  Duncan," 
interrupted  Captain  Will,  "  while  I  give  some  orders 
at  the  stables  and  in  the  garden?  I  very  nearly 
forgot  them.  Mrs.  Hallam  will  entertain  you  in  my 
absence,  I'm  sure." 

As  soon  as  the  head  of  the  house  had  made  his 
escape  through  the  door,  Mrs.  Hallam — whose  friend- 
ship for  Duncan  had  won  all  that  is  possible  of  privi- 
lege for  itself — turned  to  him  and  asked: 


MRS.   HALLAM   HEARS   NEWS       261 

"Why  haven't  you  been  taking  Barbara  to  places? 
Why  didn't  you  tell  me  to  invite  her  here  for  supper 
to-night?  You  know  I  have  had  her  here  a  dozen 
times,  and  you  know  how  welcome  she  always  is." 

"  Your  last  question  is  easily  answered,"  he  replied. 
"  I  did  not  think  of  asking  you  to  invite  her  to  supper 
this  evening  for  the  reason  that  Captain  Will  sent 
me  word  that  he  had  business  affairs  to  talk  over  with 
me." 

Mrs.  Hallam's  face  was  wreathed  in  smiles. 
"  I  wonder,"  she  said,  "  if  there  ever  was  a  young 
man  clever  enough  to  hold  his  own  with  a  woman  at 
word  fence.     And  I  wonder  if  there  was  ever  one  who 
didn't  think  he  could." 

"  I  confess,"  he  said  quickly,  "  that  I'm  not  clever 
enough  to  know  what  you  mean  by  those  two  wonder- 
ings  of  yours." 

"Oh,  yes  you  do.  You  deliberately  tried  to  shy 
off  my  first  question" — at  this  point  she  touched  a 
bell — "  by  answering  the  second  first,  and  then  omit- 
ting to  answer  the  first  at  all." 

At  this  moift^t  a  servant  appeared  in  answer  to 
her  ring. 

"  Send  word  to  John,"  she  commanded,  "  to  bring 
the  carriage  at  once — the  open  one  with  the  bays. 
Now,  Guilford  Duncan,  I  have  no  time  to  talk  with 
you  except  the  ten  minutes  before  the  carriage  comes. 
For  I'm  going  to  put  on  a  hat  and  go  after  Barbara. 
Perhaps,  between  us,  she  and  I   can  prevent  you 


262         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

two  men  from  talking  business  at  supper.  Tell 
me " 

"But  can  Barbara  come  on  so  short  a  notice?" 

"  What  sort  of  blunderer  do  you  take  me  to  be?  I 
sent  her  a  note  two  hours  ago  saying  I  should  go 
after  her,  and  she  sent  me  for  reply,  a  note  saying 
she  would  be  more  than  glad  to  come.  But  you 
mustn't  grow  conceited  over  that.  I  didn't  tell  her 
you  were  to  be  here,  or  that  I  meant  to  put  you  into 
the  carriage  to  escort  her  home.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  if  I  had  told  her  that  she  would  have  declined  the 
invitation.  Now,  answer  my  first  question.  Why 
haven't  you  been  taking  Barbara  to  places — to  church 
and  all  the  rest  of  it?" 

"Must  I  tell  you  the  truth?" 

"  Yes,  certainly.  What  would  be  the  use  of  telling 
me  anything  else  ?     I  should  know  if  your  fibbed." 

"  I  really  believe  you  would." 

"Why,  of  course  I  should.  What  are  a  woman's 
wits  for,  anyhow  ?  " 

"  The  carriage  is  at  the  door,"  said  a  servant,  enter- 
ing. 

"  Very  well.  Let  it  wait.  Now,  Guilford  Duncan, 
go  on  and  tell  me." 

"  Well,  the  fact  is,  that  I  have  not  been  in  a  posi- 
tion to  ask  Barbara  to  accept  my  escort  to  public 
places." 

"  Why  not?     Is  it  because  of  this  Tandy  affair?  " 

"No." 


MRS.   HALLAM   HEARS   NEWS       263 

"Then  what?  Go  on,  and  don't  make  me  pump 
the  information  out  of  you,  as  if  you  were  a  well  or 
a  leaky  barge." 

"The  fact  is,"  Duncan  spoke  very  seriously  now, 
"  that  a  little  while  ago  I  was  betrayed  by  own  emo- 
tions into  declaring  my  love  for  Barbara,  much  sooner 
than  I  had  intended — before  she  was  prepared  to 
hear  it." 

"  Oh,  nonsense !  As  if  a  girl  ever  needed  prepara- 
tion for  a  declaration  of  that  sort  from — well,  from 
the  right  sort  of  man.  But  go  on,  you  know  the 
carriage  is  waiting.  Tell  me.  Has  she  accepted 
you?" 

"No." 

"Has  she  rejected  you?" 

"No." 

Here  Mrs.  Duncan  again  rang  the  bell,  and  a 
servant  appeared  so  promptly  as  to  suggest  that  she 
had  been  listening  just  outside  the  door. 

"  Tell  my  maid  to  get  into  the  carriage  and  go  and 
fetch  Miss  Barbara  Verne.  Tell  her  to  say  that  I 
am  detained  here,  and  am  forced  to  send  my  maid 
in  my  stead." 

The  servant  said,  "Yes'm,"  and  withdrew.  Then 
Mrs.  Duncan  resumed  her  questioning  with  manifest 
eagerness,  but  with  as  much  of  seriousness  as  Duncan 
himself  had  shown.  There  was  no  touch  of  flippancy, 
or  even  of  lightness  in  either  her  words  or  her  tone. 
For  Mrs.  Will  Hallam  was  a  woman  of  deep  and 


264         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

tender  feeling,  a  woman  to  whom  all  holy  things  were 
sacred. 

"  Tell  me  about  it  all,  Guilford.  I  do  not  under- 
stand, and  I  must  know.  I  need  not  tell  you  that 
my  interest  is  not  prompted  by  curiosity.  I  hold  you 
as  my  brother,  and  I  love  Barbara.     Tell  me." 

And  Duncan  did.  As  he  outlined  the  compact  that 
Barbara  had  insisted  upon,  the  smiles  replaced  solemn 
apprehension  on  Mrs.  Hallam's  face,  as  though  she 
foresaw  all  she  desired  as  the  outcome  of  such  an 
arrangement. 

But  all  that  she  said  was : 

"  I  am  greatly  relieved." 


XXVIII 

The  Birth  of  a  Great  Railroad 

UPON  becoming  president  of  a  strong  bank, 
and  the  close  associate  of  Hallam  and  Staf- 
ford in  all  their  undertakings,  Guilford  Dun- 
can became  at  once  a  factor  to  be  recognized  and 
reckoned  with  in  all  enterprises  with  which  he  had  to 
do.  He  had  brains,  character,  and  indomitable 
energy,  and  these  had  already  won  for  him  the  respect 
of  the  men  of  affairs.  Now  that  he  had  control  of 
money  also,  his  power  and  influence  were  multiplied 
many  fold. 

The  time  was  one  of  expansion.  The  flood  of  irre- 
deemable and  heavily  depreciated  paper  currency 
which  had  been  issued  under  stress  of  war  necessities, 
was  producing  the  usual  effect  of  inflation.  It  gave 
a  false  seeming  of  value  to  every  purchasable  thing. 
It  caused  rapid  and  great  fluctuations  in  all  markets. 
It  lured  men  everywhere  into  speculation.  It  danger- 
ously expanded  credits  and  prompted  men  to  under- 
take enterprises  far  beyond  their  means. 

Very  early  in  his  career  as  a  banker,  Guilford  Dun- 
265 


266         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

can  discovered  that  half  the  merchants  in  Cairo  were 
young  men  of  little  capital  and  small  capacity,  who 
ought  to  have  remained  salaried  clerks.  These  had 
grown  ambitious,  set  up  for  themselves,  and  were 
carrying  large  stocks  of  goods  almost  wholly  upon 
credit.  They  were  staggering  under  loads  of  debt 
on  which  they  were  paying  ruinous  rates  of  interest. 

It  was  easy  enough  for  him  to  protect  his  bank  by 
gradually  reducing  its  loans  to  such  men  as  these, 
but  the  prudence  thus  exercised  added  to  the  num- 
ber of  his  enemies.  He  cared  little  for  that,  so  long 
as  he  knew  his  course  to  be  right. 

Looking  further  afield  he  saw  that  a  like  condition 
of  things  existed  all  over  the  West,  and  was  the 
inspiration  of  much  greater  undertakings  than  those 
of  the  merchants  and  shopkeepers. 

He  used  often  to  talk  of  these  thiu^s  with 
Hallam. 

"  You're  quite  right,"  said  that  sagacious  financier. 
"  The  country  has  gone  on  a  big  financial  drunk,  and 
of  course  the  headache  will  come  when  the  spree  is 
over.  But  it  won't  be  over  for  a  considerable  time 
to  come,  and  in  the  meanwhile  the  country  is  getting 
a  good  deal  of  benefit  from  it. 

"  Fortunately,  it  is  taking  a  better  course  than  such 
sprees  usually  do.  Ordinarily  the  existence  of  an 
inflated,  superabundant,  and  depreciated  currency 
results  in  a  wild  orgy  of  stock  gambling,  grain  gam- 
bling, cotton  gambling,  and  all  the  rest  of  it.     There 


BIRTH  OF  A  GREAT   RAILROAD    267 

is  no  more  of  good  in  that — in  fact,  there  is  far  more 
of  harm  in  it  to  the  country — than  there  would  be 
if  everybody  went  to  betting  at  roulette  or  faro.  It 
makes  the  lucky  gamblers  rich  and  the  unlucky  ones 
poor,  but  it  produces  nothing,  even  incidentally. 
This  time  the  gambling  is  taking  a  more  productive 
form.  Instead  of  betting  on  market  fluctuations, 
men  are  putting  money  into  factories,  mines,  mills, 
and  railroads — especially  railroads.  They  are  enor- 
mously overdoing  the  thing,  but  whenever  they  build 
a  railroad,  even  unwisely,  the  railroad  will  remain  as 
something  to  show  for  the  money  when  the  spree  is 
over." 

"That  is  true  enough,"  said  Duncan,  "and  of 
course  all  this  railroad  and  other  building  is,  inci- 
dentally, giving  work  and  wages  to  great  multitudes 
of  men.  But  are  we  not  paying  too  high  a  price  for 
the  good  we  get?  We  are  building  debts  about  forty 
per  cent,  faster  than  we  are  building  railroads.  Every 
mile  of  track  is  constructed  with  borrowed  money, 
worth  only  about  sixty  cents  on  the  dollar.  Yet  every 
dollar  of  these  borrowings  must  some  day  be  paid 
off  in  gold.  And  in  the  meantime  the  roads  must  pay 
a  high  interest  rate  on  a  dollar  for  every  sixty  cents' 
worth  of  money  borrowed.  I  do  not  see  how  the 
country  can  stand  it." 

"  It  can't,  permanently,  and  you  haven't  mentioned 
the  worst  feature  of  the  matter." 

"What  is  that?" 


£68         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"Why,  in  the  craze  for  building  railroads,  men 
are  projecting  and  building  many  lines  that  are  not 
needed  at  all.     In   some  cases  two,   or  even  three, 
parallel  roads  are  being  built  through  regions  that 
can  never  support  more  than  one.     It  is  sheer  waste, 
and  of  course  it  means  collapse  sooner  or  later.     But 
there  is  another  side  to  the  matter.     The  country  is 
growing  enormously  in  wealth,  and  still  more  enor- 
mously in  productive  capacity.     Nothing  helps  such 
growth  like  the  multiplication  and  extension  of  rail- 
roads.    They  bring  men  near  to  their  markets.    They 
make  farming  profitable  where  before  it  would  have 
been  a  waste  of  labor.     They  multiply  farms  and 
towns,  swell  the  population,  and  in  that  way  make 
a  market  for  manufactures.     If  we  could  cut  out  the 
parallel   lines   and   other   foolishly   projected   roads, 
I  firmly  believe  the  growth  of  the  country  in  conse- 
quence of  railroad  building  would  more  than  com- 
pensate   for    the    extra    cost    entailed    upon    us    by 
borrowing  at  a  time  of  depreciation  in  the  currency. 
But  we  can't  prevent  fool  projectors  from  building 
foolishly,  and  some  day  the  country's  sound  business 
must  shoulder  all  that  load  of  bad  investments.    When 
a  boy  eats  green  apples  he  is  in  for  a  colic,  but  he 
generally  gets  over  the  colic.     It  will  be  so  with  the 
country." 

Then  the  talk  turned  into  a  more  practical  channel. 

"You  feel  sure,  then,"  asked  Duncan,  "that  we  are 
making  no  mistake  and  doing  no  harm  in  carrying 


BIRTH   OF   A  GREAT   RAILROAD    269 

out  our  project  of  a  railroad  that  shall  bring  Cairo 
closer  to  New  York  in  the  matter  of  railroad  mile- 
age?" 

"Perfectly  sure.  That  railroad  is  imperatively 
needed.  It  will  develop  a  very  rich  agricultural 
region  which  has  been  practically  shut  off  from  the 
world.  There  is  traffic  enough  for  the  road  already 
within  sight  to  make  it  pay.  When  it  is  built,  it  will 
compel  a  cheapening  of  freight  rates  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  whole  country." 

"You  are  right,  of  course,"  answered  Duncan  re- 
flectively. "I  have  gone  over  that  subject  very 
conscientiously.  I  am  convinced  that  the  road  can 
carry  the  debt  that  must  be  incurred  in  building  it, 
and  that  it  will  pay  its  way.  If  I  had  any  serious 
doubt  of  that,  I  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
thing." 

"As  it  is,"  responded  Hallam,  "you've  got  the 
heavy  end  of  the  log  to  carry,  so  far  as  work  is  con- 
cerned. When  are  you  going  to  begin  your  cam- 
paign ?  " 

"  Almost  immediately.  I've  got  everything  in  the 
bank  into  satisfactory  shape  now,  and  three  days 
hence  I  shall  begin  a  speaking  tour  in  the  interior 
counties.  I'll  make  it  even  more  a  talking  tour  than 
a  speaking  one.  For  while  a  public  speech,  if  it  is 
persuasive  enough,  may  influence  many,  it  is  the 
quieter  talking  to  individuals  and  small  groups  that 
does  most  to  win  votes.     I've  already  secured  the 


270         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

co-operation  of  all  the  country  editors,  biit  they  need 
stirring  up,  and  worse  still  they  need  somebody  to 
tell  them  what  to  say  and  how  to  say  it  in  their  news- 
papers. Of  course  you  and  Stafford  and  Tandy  will 
take  care  of  Cairo  and  Alexander  county." 

This  proposed  railroad  was  one  clearly  destined  to 
be  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  Cairo  and  to  the 
region  through  which  the  line  must  run.  The  method 
by  which  it  was  planned  to  secure  its  construction,  was 
the  one  then  in  general  use  throughout  the  West.  It 
may  be  simply  explained.  Everybody  concerned  was 
asked  to  subscribe  to  what  might  properly  have  been 
called  an  inducement  fund.  The  subscriptions  were 
meant  to  be  gifts  made  to  secure  the  benefit  of  the 
railroad's  construction.  More  important  than  these 
personal  subscriptions,  and  vastly  greater  in  amount, 
were  the  subscriptions  of  counties,  cities,  and  towns. 
Under  the  law  as  it  then  existed  each  county,  city,  or 
town,  if  its  people  so  voted,  could  "lend  its  credit" 
to  an  enterprise  of  this  kind  by  issuing  its  own  bonds. 
When  a  sufficient  sum  was  raised  in  this  way,  an  effort 
was  made,  usually  in  New  York,  to  secure  the  form- 
ing of  a  construction  company.  The  whole  volume 
of  the  subscriptions  was  offered  as  an  inducement  to 
such  a  construction  company  to  undertake  the  build- 
ing of  the  road.  Usually  the  construction  com- 
pany was  to  have  in  addition  a  considerable  share 
of  the  stock  of  the  road  when  completed.  The  city, 
county,  and  town  subscriptions,  of  course,  depended 


BIRTH  OF  A  GREAT  RAILROAD    271 

upon  the  results  of  special  elections  held  for  that 
sole  purpose. 

In  this  case  the  personal  subscriptions  had  been 
satisfactory,  and  there  was  no  doubt  that  the  two 
terminal  cities,  and  the  counties  in  which  they  lay, 
would  vote  the  bonds  asked  of  them.  But  there  was 
grave  doubt  as  to  results  in  the  rural  counties,  in 
each  of  which  a  special  election  was  to  be  held  a 
month  or  two  later.  It  was  Guilford  Duncan's  task 
to  remove  that  doubt,  to  persuade  the  voters  to  favor 
the  proposed  subscriptions,  and  incidentally  to  secure 
rights  of  way,  station  sites,  etc.,  by  gift  from  the 
land  owners. 

During  the  next  two  months  he  toiled  ceaselessly  at 
this  task,  going  to  Cairo  only  once  a  week  to  keep  in 
touch  with  his  bank,  and  to  pass  the  Sundays  with 
Barbara. 

Tandy  also  worked  in  the  county  towns,  where  he 
had  a  good  deal  of  influence.  He  had  been  made 
president  of  the  proposed  railroad,  and  was  supposed 
to  be  very  earnestly  interested  in  it.  He  was  so — in 
his  own  way,  and  with  purposes  of  his  own. 

Duncan's  campaign  was  a  tireless  one,  and  it 
proved  successful.  When  the  elections  occurred 
every  county  and  every  town  voted  in  favor  of  the 
proposed  subscription,  but  some  of  them  did  so  by 
majorities  so  narrow  as  to  show  clearly  how  great 
the  need  of  Duncan's  work  had  been. 

"Worse  still,"  he  said  to  Hallam,  a  few  weeks 


272         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

later,  "the  smallness  of  the  majorities  in  two  or  three 
counties  is  a  threat  to  us  and  a  warning.  The  county 
authorities  are  putting  all  sorts  of  absurd  provisions 
into  their  subscriptions,  and  they  will  give  us  trouble 
if  our  construction  company  fails  in  the  smallest  par- 
ticular to  meet  these  requirements." 

"Just  what  are  the  conditions?" 

"Oh,  every  sort  of  thing.  In  every  county  it  is 
provided  that  we  shall  somewhere  break  ground 
for  construction  before  the  last  of  January — less 
than  two  months  hence — or  forfeit  the  subscrip- 
tion. That  gives  us  too  little  time  for  organization, 
but  we  can  meet  that  requirement  by  sending  a  gang 
of  men  at  our  own  expense  to  do  a  day's  work  some- 
where on  the  line.  In  two  of  the  counties  there  is  a 
peculiarly  absurd  provision.  There  are  rival  villages 
there,  one  in  each  county,  and  the  authorities  have 
stipulated  that  "a  track  shall  be  laid  across  the 
county  line  and  a  car  shall  pass  over  said  track  from 
one  county  to  the  other"  before  the  fifteenth  of 
March.  Curiously  enough,  I  learn  that  Tandy  him- 
self suggested  that  stipulation  to  the  county  authori- 
ties. I  hear  he  is  giving  it  out  that  he  had  to  do  so 
to  save  the  election,  but  that's  nonsense,  just  as  the 
provision  itself  is.  Such  a  requirement  will  greatly 
embarrass  us  in  our  negotiations  with  capitalists.  For 
the  line  will  not  be  fully  surveyed  by  that  time,  and 
nobody  can  tell,  till  that  is  done,  precisely  where  the 
road  ought  to  cross  that  countv  line,  or  at  what 


BIRTH   OF   A  GREAT   RAILROAD    27S 

grade.     I  can't  imagine  what  Tandy  meant  by  get- 
ting such  a  provision  inserted." 

"Neither  can  I,"  answered  Hallam;  "but  we'll  find 
out  some  fine  morning,  and  we  must  be  prepared  to 
meet  whatever  comes.  He's  up  to  some  trick  of 
course." 


XXIX 

A  Scrap  of  Paper 

WHEN  Duncan  assumed  control  of  the 
bank  as  its  president,  his  first  care  was  to 
acquaint  himself  minutely  with  its  condi- 
tion. In  general  he  found  its  affairs  in  excellent 
shape,  for  Tandy  was  a  skillful  banker  and,  on  the 
whole,  a  prudent  one.  There  were  many  small  loans 
to  local  shopkeepers  which  Duncan  could  not  approve, 
and  these  he  called  in  as  they  fell  due,  refusing  to 
renew  them.  Beyond  such  matters  he  found  nothing 
wrong  till  he  came  to  examine  the  record  of  Tandy's 
own  dealings  with  the  bank. 

There  he  found  that  in  carrying  on  his  multifa- 
rious enterprises,  Tandy  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
borrowing  and  using  the  bank's  funds  in  ways  for- 
bidden by  the  law  of  national  banking.  Had  Tandy 
anticipated  his  own  removal  from  control  he  would 
doubtless  have  set  his  account  in  order  so  that  no 
complaint  could  be  made.  As  it  was,  Duncan  found 
that  he  was  at  that  very  time  heavily  in  debt  to  the 
institution  for  borrowings  made  in  evasion  though 

274 


A   SCRAP   OF  PAPER  275 

possibly  not  in  direct  violation  of  a  law  carefully 
framed  for  the  protection  of  stockholders  and 
depositors. 

The  matter  troubled  Duncan  sorely,  and  acting 
upon  the  resolution  he  had  formed  with  regard  to 
his  relations  with  Barbara,  he  told  her  of  it. 

"I  really  don't  know  what  to  do,"  he  said  in  a 
troubled  tone.  "Of  course  the  money  is  perfectly 
safe.  Tandy  is  good  for  two  or  three  times  the 
amount.  And  I  learn  that  it  is  a  practice  among  bank 
officers  sometimes  to  stretch  their  authority  and  bor- 
row their  own  bank's  funds  in  this  way." 

"You  say  the  thing  is  a  violation  of  the  law?" 
asked  Barbara,  going  straight  to  the  marrow  of  the 
matter  after  her  uniform  fashion. 

"In  effect,  yes.  I  am  not  sure  that  it  could  be 
called  a  positive  violation  of  law — it  is  so  well  hedged 
about  with  little  fictions  and  pretenses — but  it  is 
plainly  an  evasion,  and  one  which  might  get  the  bank 
into  trouble  with  the  authorities  at  Washington." 

"You  mean  that  it  is  something  which  the  law 
intends  to  forbid?" 

"  Yes.    It  is  in  violation  of  the  spirit  of  the  law." 

"  Then  I  don't  see  why  you  should  have  any  doubt 
as  to  what  you  ought  to  do." 

"  It  is  only  that  under  the  circumstances,  if  I  press 
Tandy  and  call  in  these  loans,  it  might  look  like  an 
unworthy  indulgence  in  spite  on  my  part." 

"I  think  you  have  no  right  to  consider  that.    You 


276         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

have  taken  an  oath  to  obey  the  law  in  the  conduct  of 

the  bank,  and " 

"  How  did  you  know  that,  Barbara?  " 
The  girl  flushed  and  hesitated.     At  last  she  said: 
"  I've  been  reading  the  national  banking  laws." 
"What  in  the  world  did  you  do  that  for?" 
"Why,  I'm  to  help,  you  know.     So  as  soon  as  I 
heard  you  were  to  be  president  of  the  bank  I  asked 
Mrs.  Hallam  to  get  Captain  Hallam  to  lend  me  the 
books." 

Duncan  smiled  and  kept  silence  for  a  while. 
"Was  that  wrong,  or  very  foolish,  Guilford?     I 
can  really  understand  the  book." 

"  Of  course  you  can,  and  it  was  neither  wrong  nor 
rery  foolish  in  you  to  try.  It  was  only  very  loyal 
and  very  loving.  But  there  was  no  occasion  for  you 
to  do  anything  of  the  sort." 

"  But  how  can  I  help  you  if  I  don't  try  my  best  to 
understand  the  things  you  are  dealing  with?" 

"As  I  said  before,"  he  answered  tenderly,  "it  is 
very  loyal  and  very  loving  of  you  to  think  in  that 
way,  and  I  thank  you  for  it.  But  that  isn't  what  I 
have  had  in  mind  when  we  have  talked  of  your  helping 
me.  I  have  never  had  a  thought  of  burdening  you 
with  my  affairs  except  to  ask  for  your  sympathy 
when  things  trouble  me,  and  your  counsel  on  all 
points  of  right  and  wrong,  and  all  that.  You  see, 
you  have  two  things  that  I  need." 
"What  are  they?" 


A   SCRAP   OF  PAPER  <OT 

"A  singularly  clear  insight  into  all  matters  of 
duty,  and  a  conscience  as  white  as  snow.  In  this 
matter  of  Tandy's  account,  for  example,  you  have 
helped  me  more  than  you  imagine.  You  have  seen 
my  duty  clearly,  where  I  was  in  doubt  about  it,  and 
you  have  prompted  me  to  the  resolute  doing  of  it, 
regardless  of  my  own  feelings,  or  Tandy's,  or  of  any 
other  consideration  whatever.  Moreover,  it  is  an  im- 
measurable help  to  me  simply  to  sit  in  your  presence 
and  feel  that  you  want  me  to  do  right  always.  I 
think  association  with  you  would  keep  any  man  in 
the  straight  road.  I  know  that  your  love  would 
do  so." 

"I  am  very,  very  glad,"  the  girl  answered  with 
misty  eyes,  "  but  I  must  help  in  practical  ways,  too — 
in  all  ways.  So  I  must  do  my  best  to  understand  all 
the  things  that  you  have  to  manage." 

"  God  bless  you ! " 

That  was  all  he  said.  It  seemed  to  him  quite  all 
there  was  to  say.  But  early  the  next  morning  he  sent 
a  courteous  note  to  Tandy,  calling  his  attention  to 
the  "irregularity"  of  his  relations  with  the  bank, 
and  asking  him  to  call  at  once  to  set  the  matter 
right. 

After  he  had  sent  off  the  note  he  continued  his  ex- 
amination of  the  details  of  the  bank's  affairs.  He 
had  gone  over  the  books  very  carefully.  He  had  ex- 
amined the  notes  held  for  collection  and  the  like.  It 
remained  only  for  him  to  make  a  personal  inspection 


278         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

of  the  cash  and  securities  held  by  the  bank,  and  that 
was  his  task  this  morning. 

He  had  not  gone  far  with  it  when  he  came  upon  a 
small  three-cornered  slip  of  paper,  with  a  memoran- 
dum penciled  upon  it.  It  lay  in  the  midst  of  a  bun- 
dle of  greenbacks. 

Looking  at  it  carefully,  Duncan  turned  sharply 
upon  the  teller  who  had  charge  of  the  currency,  and 
demanded : 

"What  does  this  mean?  Why  did  you  not  bring 
that  to  my  attention  sooner?" 

Before  the  teller  could  reply  with  an  excuse  or  ex- 
planation, Tandy  was  announced  as  waiting  in  the 
bank  parlor  to  see  Mr.  Duncan. 

Duncan  slipped  the  scrap  of  paper  into  his  vest 
pocket,  saying  to  the  teller : 

"Make  a  memorandum  that  I  have  possession  of 
this." 

Then  he  walked  into  the  parlor. 

There  he  received  Tandy  with  cold  dignity  and 
marked  reserve — more  of  coldness,  more  of  dignity, 
and  far  more  of  reserve  than  he  would  have  thought 
necessary  if  he  had  not  found  that  scrap  of  paper. 

Before  seating  himself,  he  called  in  one  of  the 
bookkeepers,  saying: 

"Mr.  Leftwich,  I  desire  you  to  remain  with 
Mr.  Tandy  and  me,  during  the  whole  of  our  inter- 
view." 

"  Surely  that  is  unnecessary,  Duncan,"  said  Tandy 


A   SCRAP   OF  PAPER  279 

hastily.  "I  don't  care  to  discuss  my  private  affairs 
in  the  presence  of  a  clerk." 

"I  have  no  intention  to  discuss  your  private 
affairs  at  all,  Mr.  Tandy,"  Duncan  replied.  "The 
matter  concerning  which  I  have  asked  you  to  call 
here,  is  not  a  private  affair  of  yours  or  mine.  It  is 
a  matter  connected  with  the  administration  of  the 
bank.     Be  seated,  Mr.  Leftwich." 

"  But  I  insist,"  said  Tandy,  with  a  good  deal  more 
of  heat  than  he  was  accustomed  to  permit  himself  to 
show,  "  I  insist  upon  a  confidential  interview." 

"  You  cannot  have  it.  I  do  not  regard  myself  as 
upon  confidential  terms  with  you,  nor  do  I  think  of 
you  as  a  man  with  whom  I  desire  to  establish  confi- 
dential relations." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  insult  me  in  my  own — in  a  bank 
that  I  founded,  and  in  which  I  am  still  a  large 
stockholder?" 

"  Perhaps  you  had  better  not  press  me  to  explain 
myself,"  answered  Duncan  with  a  calmness  that  em- 
phasized his  determination.  "I  might  feel  it  neces- 
sary to  mention  some  facts  that  otherwise  there  is  no 
occasion  for  Mr.  Leftwich  to  know." 

"Oh,  very  well.  I  ought  not  to  have  expected 
courtesy  at  your  hands." 

"  I  think  I  must  agree  with  you  in  that,"  answered 
Duncan.  "In  view  of  the  circumstances — which,  I 
may  remind  you,  are  of  your  own  making — I  really 
think  you  ought  not  to  have  expected  courtesy    at 


280         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

my  hands.  Suppose  we  get  down  to  business  instead. 
What  have  you  to  suggest  by  way  of  arranging  your 
affairs  with  the  bank?" 

"  I  don't  know.  I  came  here  hoping  and  expecting 
that  in  view  of  all  the  circumstances  you  might  be 
willing  to  let  this  matter  of  my  loans  from  the  bank 
rest  between  ourselves  for  a  time." 

Duncan  was  outwardly  calm  now,  but  inwardly  he 
was  in  a  towering  rage,  for  Tandy's  presence  re- 
minded him  bitterly  of  the  way  in  which  the  ex-banker 
had  tried  first  to  corrupt  him  and  then  to  blast  his 
reputation  with  a  lie;  and  Tandy's  manner  clearly 
enough  indicated  that  he  had  come  to  the  bank  in  full 
expectation  of  warping  him  to  his  will  in  another 
matter  involving  his  duty  and  his  honor. 

"How  do  you  mean  to  'let  it  rest'?"  he  asked, 
carefully  controlling  his  voice. 

"Oh,  you  understand,  or  you  would  if  you  knew 
anything  of  banking." 

"I  will  trouble  you  to  omit  all  discussion  of  my 
knowledge  or  my  ignorance.  Your  account  with  this 
bank  is  at  present  in  a  shape  forbidden  by  law.  It 
must  be  adjusted  at  once.  That  is  all  that  concerns 
me  in  the  case.     Please  confine  yourself  to  that." 

Tandy  became  placative  and  apologetic. 

"You  must  really  pardon  me,  Mr.  Duncan.  This 
thing  has  knocked  me  out  a  good  deal — it  came  upon 
me  so  suddenly  and  unexpectedly.  I  make  my  apolo- 
gies if  I  have  said  anything  to  offend.    But  is  there 


A   SCRAP   OF  PAPER  281 

nothing  I  can  do  to  fix  the  thing  up — so  that  the 
bank  can  carry  it  for  me  till  I  can  turn  around?  You 
see  these  things  are  so  customary  in  banks  that  it 
never  occurred  to  me  that  you  would  insist  upon  the 
strict  letter  of  the  law." 

"I  have  taken  an  oath,"  answered  Duncan,  "to 
obey  and  enforce  the  strict  letter  of  the  law  in  the 
administration  of  this  bank's  affairs — just  as  you  did 
when  you  were  president  here.  /,  at  least,  intend  to 
respect  my  oath." 

"What  do  you  require  of  me?" 

"For  one  thing,  that  you  shall  put  your  account 
into  a  shape  permitted  by  law  and  warranted  by  pru- 
dence. In  doing  that,  you  shall  have  all  the  help  the 
bank  can  properly  lend  you." 

"  Tell  me  your  exact  terms,"  said  Tandy,  "  and  I 
will  endeavor  to  comply  with  them." 

"  You  must  comply  with  them,  as  they  will  be  only 
such  as  it  is  my  duty  to  insist  upon." 

"What  are  they?" 

"  First  of  all,  you  must  to-day  deposit  fifteen  thou- 
sand dollars,  in  cash  or  securities,  to  make  good  that 
bit  of  paper,"  said  Duncan,  holding  up  the  three- 
cornered  fragment  of  a  letter  sheet,  on  which  there 
was  written  in  Tandy's  hand: 

Good  for  $15,000— count  this  as  cash.    N.  T.,  Pres't 

"I  found  that  in  our  cash  assets  only  this  morn- 
ing, Mr.  Tandy.     Until  it  turned  up  I  had  cherished 


282         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

the  belief  that  your  irregularities  were  only  such  as 
you  say  are  customary  with  bank  officers.  I  believe 
it  is  not  customary,  however,  for  the  president  of  a 
bank  to  abstract  fifteen  thousand  dollars  of  the  bank's 
cash  and  substitute  for  it  a  mere  pencil  scribbling  on 
a  scrap  of  paper,  signed  with  initials." 

Tandy  sat  gazing  vacantly  at  Duncan,  with  livid 
lips  and  contorted  features.  He  had  so  long  been 
accustomed  to  administer  the  bank's  affairs  as  suited 
his  personal  convenience  that  he  had  quite  forgotten 
this  little  transaction.  Recovering  himself,  he  said 
presently : 

"  That  was  an  oversight  on  my  part,  Mr.  Duncan. 
It  was  merely  a  matter  of  temporary  convenience. 
You  see,  one  evening  after  hours,  I  happened  suddenly 
to  need  that  amount  in  currency.  I  came  here  to  the 
bank  and  got  it,  putting  the  mem.  into  the  cash  box 
in  its  stead,  as  there  were  none  of  the  bank's  officers 
or  clerks  here  to  take  my  check.  Besides,  I  hadn't 
my  check-book  with  me.  I  fully  intended  to  arrange 
the  matter  before  the  bank  opened  the  next  morning, 
but  somehow  I  forgot  it.  It  was  only  an  oversight, 
I  assure  you." 

"  It  was  a  felony,"  answered  Duncan,  in  a  tone  as 
free  from  stress  as  if  he  had  merely  said,  "  It  is  rain- 
ing."    Then  he  added : 

"  Will  you  make  a  deposit  now  to  clear  that  matter 
up?  After  you  do  so  we  can  go  on  and  adjust  the 
other  matters." 


A   SCRAP   OF  PAPER  28S 

" Have  mercy  on  me,  Duncan!     Give  me  a  day  or 
two  to  look  about  me !     I've  been  investing  very  heav- 
ily of  late,  and  really  I  can't  raise  fifteen  thousand 
at  a  moment's  notice.     You  know  I  am  good  for  ten 
times  the  sum.     Why  not  let  it  rest  for  a  week,  say  ?  " 
"  Mr.  Tandy,"  replied  Duncan,  enunciating  every 
syllable  as  precisely  as  if  he  had  been  reciting  a  lesson 
in  a  foreign  tongue,  "  let  me  remind  you  of  something. 
Some  time  ago  you  offered  to  pay  me  a  high  price  to 
commit  a  crime.     You  remember  the  circumstance,  I 
Lave  no  doubt.     You  remember  that  I  refused,  and 
that  you  sought  revenge  by  lying  to  the  men  who 
were  then  employing  me.     You  told  an  infamous  lie 
that,  if  it  had  been  believed,  would  have  blasted  my 
good  name  forever.     No,  don't  interrupt.     I  had  not 
intended  to  mention  this  matter,  especially  in  Mr. 
Lef  twich's  presence,"  bowing  toward  the  bookkeeper, 
whose  jaw  had  relaxed  in  astonishment.     "  I  had  not 
intended  to  mention  that  matter,  but  you  have  forced 
me  to  remind  you  of  it,  by  trying  now  to  persuade  me 
to  commit  a  crime  without  any  inducement  whatever 
except  such  as  may  be  implied  in  my  concern  for  your 
convenience.     Until  now  I  have  been  prepared  to  con- 
sider your  convenience  so  far  as  I  could  do  so  con- 
sistently with  my  duty  to  the  bank.     I  am  now  not 
disposed  to  consider  it  at  all.     You  must  bring  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  here  within  an  hour,  and  redeem  that 
piece  of  paper,  or  I  shall  proceed  against  you  crimi- 
nally.    After  you  shall  have  done  that,  you  must 


284         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

make  such  other  deposits  of  cash  or  acceptable  securi- 
ties as  may  be  necessary  to  set  your  general  account 
in  order.  That  is  all  I  have  to  say.  I  give  you  one 
hour  in  which  to  take  up  this  paper,  and  I  give  you 
the  rest  of  the  day  in  which  to  adjust  the  other  mat- 
ter. That  ends  our  conference,  and  I  must  excuse 
myself.     You  know  your  way  out." 


XXX 

The  Mystery  of  Tandy 

TANDY  quitted  the  bank  in  very  serious  dis- 
tress of  mind.  He  was  a  capitalist  of  large 
means,  but  even  a  great  capitalist — and  he 
could  not  be  reckoned  as  quite  that — may  sometimes 
find  it  inconvenient  to  raise  money  in  considerable 
sums  upon  the  instant.  It  so  happened  that  just  at 
this  time  Tandy's  means  were  all  employed  and  his 
credit  stretched  almost  to  the  point  of  breaking,  by 
reason  of  his  excessive  and  largely  concealed  invest- 
ments in  a  number  of  enterprises. 

On  the  moral  side,  it  would  have  been  difficult  even 
for  Tandy  himself  to  say  just  what  measure  of  suf- 
fering he  endured.  His  conscience  was  casehard- 
ened,  but  his  financial  reputation  was  not  only  a  valu- 
able, but  an  absolutely  necessary  part  of  his  equip- 
ment for  the  businesses  in  which  he  was  engaged.  That 
reputation  was  now  in  great  danger.  He  wondered 
if  Duncan  would  tell  the  story  of  that  scrap  of  paper. 
He  wondered  still  more,  whether  Duncan  might  not 
report  the  matter  to  the  comptroller  of  the  currency 


286         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

at  Washington,  and  thus  bring  about  a  criminal  pros- 
ecution, even  after  the  sum  irregularly  borrowed  had 
been  repaid.  Then  he  remembered,  with  something 
like  a  spasm  round  his  heart,  that  the  bookkeeper, 
Leftwich,  had  heard  the  whole  conversation,  and  he 
remembered  also  that  he  had  been,  as  he  put  it,  "  rather 
hard  on  Leftwich"  upon  several  occasions  in  the  past. 
If  Leftwich  cherished  resentment  on  that  account,  his 
malice  now  had  its  opportunity. 

On  the  whole,  Napper  Tandy  could  not  recall 
another  day  in  all  his  life  on  which  he  had  suffered  so 
much  in  spirit  as  he  did  now.  But  there  was  no  time 
for  brooding  or  lamenting.  He  felt  that  he  was  in 
Guilford  Duncan's  clutches,  and,  while  he  knew  little 
of  conscientious  scruples  by  virtue  of  any  soul  experi- 
ences of  that  kind  on  his  own  part,  he  had  so  far 
learned  to  understand  Duncan  as  to  know  that  he 
would,  as  a  matter  of  conscience  alone,  enforce  the 
strict  letter  of  his  demand. 

He  hastened  to  find  Captain  Will  Hallam,  and  to 
him  he  made  almost  a  piteous  appeal  for  a  loan 
of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  through  the  Hallam 
bank. 

"So  Duncan  carries  too  many  guns  for  you,  eh?" 
was  the  flippant  remark  with  which  Captain  Hallam 
received  the  appeal. 

"Will  you  let  me  have  the  money?"  almost  fran- 
tically pleaded  the  now  thoroughly  frightened  man. 
"  You  see  time  is  precious.     I've  less  than  an  hour  in 


THE    MYSTERY   OF   TANDY        287 

which  to  raise  the  sum.     You  must  help  me  out, 
Hallam." 

"I  really  don't  know  whether  I  can  arrange  it  or 
not.  I'll  see  Stafford  and  find  out  how  far  our  loans 
are  extended.  What  security  can  you  give?  You 
know  Stafford  is  very  exacting  as  to  the  character  of 
the  security  on  which  he  lends  the  bank's  funds." 

"  Yes,  I  know — and  that  is  very  awkward  just  now. 
I'm  a  good  deal  tied  up,  you  know.  I've  been  buying 
property  along  the  line  of  our  proposed  railroad.  I've 
bought  rather  heavily,  and  as  I  hadn't  expected  to  be 
called  upon  to  raise  money  just  now,  I  have  gone  in 
pretty  deep  on  credit.  You  know  how  impossible  it 
is  to  realize  on  such  property,  even  at  a  loss,  when  a 
man  must  have  money  at  once." 

"  Then  what  can  you  offer?  " 

"Well,  I've  a  pretty  large  block  of  stock  in  the 
Memphis  and  Ohio  River  Railroad " 

"  Not  good  collateral  till  the  road  is  finished.  You 
know  we  couldn't  touch  that." 

Tandy  mentioned  some  other  securities  that  Hal- 
lam deemed  insecure,  and  by  this  time  Hallam  had 
begun  to  wonder  what  was  the  matter  with  Tandy. 
He  knew,  or  thought  he  knew,  that  the  man  must 
have  greatly  more  money  invested  somewhere  than 
these  things  represented.  He  had  a  great  curiosity 
to  know  what  the  other  investments  were,  but  he  did 
not  find  out,  for  at  last,  within  a  brief  while  of  the 
end  of  his  hour  of  grace,  the  troubled  man  said: 


288         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"  There  is  nothing  for  it  but  to  hypothecate  a  part 
of  my  stock  in  the  X  National.  You  know  that  is 
good." 

"Oh,  yes,  that's  good.  Stafford  will  accept  that 
as  collateral  if  the  bank  is  in  a  position  to  extend  its 
loans.     I'll  go  and  see." 

When  he  told  Stafford  what  the  situation  was,  that 
astute  banker — who  had  been  in  many  a  financial 
fisticuff  with  Tandy — quietly  said: 

"  I  don't  see  why  we  should  make  the  loan.  Why 
not  refuse  it,  and  then  have  you  offer  to  buy  the  stock 
outright  at  about  par?  He  must  sell,  for  if  I  have 
correctly  sized  up  our  friend  Duncan,  he'll  never  let 
up  on  his  demand  in  this  case.  A  man  with  a  con- 
science like  his  simply  can't  let  up  in  such  a  matter." 

"That's  the  way  we'll  fix  it,"  answered  Hallam, 
with  an  amused  twinkle  in  his  eye.  "  He's  obviously 
in  need  of  a  little  more  education  at  my  hands,  and 
he  can  afford  to  pay  for  it.  I'll  buy  the  stock  at  par 
— not  a  cent  more.  I  suppose  it's  worth  a  hundred 
and  three?" 

"  Yes — all  of  that,  and  it  will  be  worth  more  pres- 
ently under  Duncan's  management.  What  a  fellow 
that  is,  anyhow!" 

"  I  imagine  Tandy  thinks  so  by  this  time." 

As  there  was  no  other  bank  in  Cairo,  and  nobody 
else  who  could  make  a  loan  such  as  Tandy  must  have 
on  the  instant,  he  was  simply  compelled  to  make  the 
sale  on  Hallam's  own  terms, 


THE    MYSTERY   OF    TANDY        289 

With  Hallam's  check  in  hand,  he  hurried  to  the  X 
National,  arriving  there  just  in  time  to  meet  Guilford 
Duncan's  demand. 

Duncan  received  the  check  in  the  bank  parlor, 
again  insisting  that  Leftwich  should  be  present  at  the 
interview. 

"  I'll  take  that  paper,  if  you  please,"  Tandy  said, 
holding  out  his  hand  for  it. 

"  Not  until  you  shall  have  adjusted  the  other  mat- 
ter. The  bank's  books  show  that,  while  you  were  still 
president  of  the  institution,  you  made  a  loan  of  thirty 
thousand  dollars  to  yourself,  on  your  unsecured  note, 
without  even  an  endorsement.  You  know  that  in 
doing  so,  you  violated  the  law  you  were  sworn  to  obey 
and  enforce.  With  that  I  do  not  now  concern  my- 
self. What  I  ask  is  that  you  secure  the  bank  for  that 
loan,  which  still  stands.  When  that  is  done,  Mr.  Left- 
wich will  return  this  paper  to  you.  In  the  meanwhile, 
I  place  it  in  his  hands." 

"Really,  Mr.  Duncan" — for  since  the  early  part 
of  that  morning's  interview,  Tandy  had  not  ventured 
again  upon  the  familiarity  of  addressing  Duncan 
without  the  "Mr." — "really,  Mr.  Duncan,  you  are 
pressing  me  too  hard.  You  must  give  me  a  few 
days " 

"How  can  I?  The  law  would  hold  me  at  fault  if 
I  should  allow  the  bank  to  close  to-day  with  that  loan 
unsecured.-     I  have  no  right  to  give  you  time." 

"  You  are  persecuting  me ! " 


290         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"No,  I  am  not.  If  I  were  minded  to  do  that,  I 
should  call  the  loan  in  at  once.  As  it  is,  I  only  ask 
you — as  I  must — to  secure  it  as  the  law  requires.  I 
will  accept  any  fairly  good  collateral  you  may  have 
to  offer.  There  is  surely  no  hardship  in  that — no 
persecution  in  demanding  that  you  shall  temporarily 
leave  with  the  bank  enough  of  the  bonds  or  stock  cer- 
tificates that  you  hold  in  plenty,  to  comply  with  the 
law  concerning  loans  by  national  banks.  I  have 
simply  no  choice  but  to  insist  upon  that." 

"  But  I  tell  you,"  answered  Tandy,  "  that  at  pres- 
ent I  have  no  bonds  or  stocks  conveniently  available 
for  such  a  purpose." 

"I  will  accept  your  insurance  stock." 

"  I've  parted  with  that." 

"Well,  as  I  certainly  have  no  disposition  to  be 
hard  upon  you,  I'll  accept  your  stock  in  the  Atlantic 
and  Mississippi  Steamship  Company,  or  even  your 
Mississippi  Valley  Transportation  Company  stock, 
though  neither  can  be  reckoned  a  first-class  security." 

"I've  sold  out  of  both  companies,"  answered 
Tandy. 

By  this  time  Duncan  began  to  wonder  what  had 
happened  to  Tandy,  in  a  financial  way,  just  as  Hal- 
lam  had  done. 

"Wonder  where  he  has  been  putting  his  money," 
he  thought.  "  For  surely  he  had  plenty  of  it  a  little 
while  ago.  He's  been  buying  property  along  the 
new  railroad,  but  that  isn't  sufficient  to  tie  up  a  man 


THE    MYSTERY   OF   TANDY        291 

of  Tandy's  wealth.     Something  must  be  the  matter. 
I  must  be  cautious." 

"  I'll  put  up  a  hundred  thousand  in  Memphis  and 
Ohio  River  stock "  began  Tandy. 

"You  know  I  can't  consider  that,"  said  Duncan; 
"  no  sane  banker  could.  But  if  you  choose,  the  bank 
will  accept  stock  in  your  coal  mine! — reckoned  at  fifty 
cents  on  the  dollar — as  security." 

"That's  out  of  the  question.  I'm  negotiating  a 
sale  of  my  interests  there,  and  it  would  embarrass  me 
to  have  the  stock  hypothecated  just  now." 

"Very  well,  then.  What  do  you  propose  to  do? 
Of  course  you  have  a  large  block  of  stock  in  this 
bank.  Why  not  put  that  up  as  security,  and  give 
yourself  all  the  time  you  need?  Or  if  you  don't  want 
to  hypothecate  the  stock  with  this  bank,  you  can 
arrange  a  loan  on  it  with  Stafford  or  Hallam." 

Tandy  hesitated  for  a  time  before  answering.  At 
last  he  said: 

"  I've  only  thirty-three  shares  left.  Why  shouldn't 
the  bank  buy  it  outright,  putting  the  loan  in  as  a 
principal  part  of  the  purchase  money?" 

"At  what  price  will  you  sell?" 

"  At  103.     It's  worth  that  and  more. 

"  I'll  consider  the  offer.  Come  back  in  an  hour  for 
your  answer." 

Duncan  sent  at  once  for  Hallam  and  Stafford,  as 
the  principal  stockholders  in  the  bank,  other  than 
Tandy,  and  told  them  all  that  had  happened.    They 


292         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

advised  the  purchase,  but  suggested  102  as  the  price, 
and  an  hour  later  Napper  Tandy  ceased  to  be  a  stock- 
holder in  the  X  National  Bank. 

A  day  or  two  later  Stafford  learned  that  by  this 
sale  of  his  bank  stock,  Tandy  had  practically  parted 
with  the  last  investment  he  had  in  any  Cairo  enterprise. 

He  greatly  wondered  at  that,  and  as  he  sat  with 
Duncan  and  HallaTn  in  Hallam's  parlor  that  night, 
the  three  indulged  in  many  conjectures  concerning 
Tandy  and  his  plans.  The  only  conclusion  they 
arrived  at  was  expressed  by  Captain  Will : 

"  He's  up  to  mischief  of  some  sort.  We  must  watch 
him." 


XXXI 

Only  a  Woman 

IN  accordance  with  his  custom,  Duncan  told  Bar- 
bara the  whole  story  of  the  bank's  dealings  with 
Tandy,  and  explained  to  her  his  reasons  for  sus- 
pecting, as  Captain  Hallam  had  said,  that  Tandy 
was  "  up  to  mischief  "  of  some  kind  and  needed  close 
watching. 

"Perhaps  he  has  lost  money  heavily,"  suggested 
Barbara,  "  and  is  struggling  to  keep  his  head  above 
water." 

"  That  is  extremely  unlikely,"  answered  Duncan, 
"particularly  as  his  standing  at  Bradstreet's  is  un- 
impaired. I  asked  Bradstreet's  yesterday  for  a  special 
report  on  him,  and  they  gave  him  four  A's.  That 
means  that  he  has  ample  capital  and  abundant  re- 
sources somewhere  within  the  knowledge  of  Brad- 
street's agents.  I  imagine  that  he  is  going  quietly 
into  some  big  enterprise,  and  has  so  far  invested  his 
capital  in  it  that  he  was  sorely  embarrassed  for  ready 
money  when  suddenly  called  upon  to  raise  it.  I 
would  give  a  tidy  little  sum  to  find  out  what  he  is 
up  to." 

m 


294         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

But  neither  Duncan  nor  Hallam  was  destined  to 
make  that  discovery  as  yet.  Soon  after  the  bank 
matter  was  settled,  Tandy  seemed  quite  at  ease  again 
financially.  He  resumed  his  purchases  of  property 
along  the  line  of  the  proposed  railway,  but  only  along 
the  eastern  half  of  it.  He  bought  none  in  Cairo  or 
within  fifty  miles  of  that  city. 

Two  months  later,  after  Duncan's  campaign  was 
over,  and  the  elections  had  been  held,  he  and  Barbara 
came  back  to  the  subject.  Duncan  told  Barbara  of 
the  queer  provision  that  Tandy  had  persuaded  the 
authorities  of  two  counties  to  put  into  their  bond 
appropriation,  and  expressed  his  curiosity  to  know 
the  motive. 

"He  didn't  do  that  thing  just  for  fun,  Guilford," 
the  girl  said,  after  she  had  thought  the  matter  over 
for  twenty-four  hours.  "He  has  some  interest  to 
serve." 

"  Of  course.     I'm  very  sure  of  that." 

"  We  must  find  out  what  it  is,"  said  the  girl,  whose 
apprehension  was  strongly  aroused. 

"But  how,  Barbara?" 

"  I  don't  know  how,  at  present,  but  I'm  trying  to 
find  out  a  way.  I  don't  know  enough  about  the  facts 
as  yet  to  make  a  good  guess.  You  must  tell  me  some 
things." 

"Anything  you  like." 

"  Is  there  any  other  railroad  that  might  be  injured 
by  this  one?     Any  road,  I  mean,  that  he  might  be 


ONLY  A  WOMAN  295 

interested  in  enough  to  make  him  want  this  project 
defeated?" 

"No,  certainly  not.  On  the  contrary,  he  has  a 
tremendous  interest  in  the  building  of  our  road.  Of 
course  his  interests  here  in  Cairo  are  comparatively 
small,  now  that  he  is  out  of  the  bank,  but  as  you  know, 
he  has  been  buying  property  very  heavily  along  our 
proposed  line.  Of  course,  when  the  road  is  finished 
the  towns  along  the  line  will  grow,  and  property  there 
will  go  up.  In  view  of  that,  he  has  been  buying  lots, 
houses,  and  business  buildings  at  all  the  places  where 
principal  stations  are  likely  to  be  located." 

It  was  two  or  three  days  later  when  Barbara  re- 
turned to  the  subject  by  a  somewhat  indirect  route. 

"Tell  me  about  Paducah,  Guilford,"  she  said  to 
him  suddenly. 

He  laughingly  answered: 

"  Paducah  is  a  thriving  town  in  northwestern  Ken- 
tucky. It  lies  on  the  Ohio  River  about  fifty  miles 
above  the  mouth  of  that  stream.  It  has  a  small  but 
ambitious  population,  and  is  a  considerable  market  for 
the  sale  of  tobacco.  That's  about  all  I  remember  of 
what  the  gazeteer  says  about  the  interesting  burg." 

"  And  you  know  that  isn't  what  I  want  you  to  tell 
me.     Are  there  any  railroads  there?" 

"  One  small  one,  running  from  the  south,  ends  there, 
I  believe,  and  the  Paducah  people  are  trying  to  induce 
the  company  which  is  building  the  Memphis  and  Ohio 
River  Railroad  to  make  its  northern  terminus  there 


296         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

instead  of  at  Cairo.  They  are  trying,  too,  to  get  a 
bridge  built  across  the  Ohio  at  that  point.  They  are 
unlikely  to  succeed  in  either  project,  for  the  reason 
that  they  have  no  railroad  connection  north  or  east. 
Railroads  from  the  south  running  into  Paducah  would 
find  no  outlet  except  by  the  river." 

Barbara  was  silent  for  some  time.  Then  she  asked : 
"  Is  Mr.  Tandy  interested  in  any  business  at  Padu- 
cah?" 

"  I  really  don't  know.  He's  in  all  sorts  of  things, 
you  know.     But  why  do  you  ask  ?  " 

Instead  of  answering,  she  asked  another  question: 

"  Is  he  interested  in  the  company  you  spoke  of, 
that  is  building  a  line  from  Memphis  to  the  Ohio 
River?" 

"Yes.  He's  heavily  in  that.  Indeed,  he  is  presi- 
dent of  it,  I  believe,  or  something  like  that,  just  as  he 
is  of  our  company — well,  no,  the  parallel  doesn't  hold, 
for  ours  is  only  a  projecting  company,  as  yet,  while 
that  is  a  full-fledged  railroad  company  actually  en- 
gaged in  building.  I  suppose  that  is  one  of  the 
things  that  tied  Tandy  up  at  the  time  of  the  bank 
trouble.  He  had  put  a  pot  of  money  into  it,  and  he 
could  neither  sell  his  stock  nor  raise  money  on  it  till 
the  road  should  be  finished  and  in  operation.  But 
why  do  you  ask  about  that,  Barbara  ?  " 

For  answer,  she  crossed  the  room,  and  returning, 
spread  out  a  map  on  a  table. 

"Look!"  she  said,  putting  her  finger  on  the  map. 


ONLY  A  WOMAN  297 

"  At  a  point  only  a  little  east  of  that  county  line  con- 
cerning which  Tandy  got  the  strange  stipulation 
made,  our  proposed  line  will  be  much  nearer  to 
Paducah  than  the  distance  from  that  point  to  Cairo. 
May  it  not  be  possible " 

"By  Jove,  Barbara!"  Duncan  exclaimed,  as  he 
bent  over  the  map,  "  you've  solved  the  riddle.  "  What 
a  splendid  combination  it  is!  And  how  we  must 
hustle  to  defeat  it!" 

"You  must  be  calm,  then,  and  let  us  work  it  all 
out,  and  be  sure  of  everything  before  you  tell  Captain 
Will  about  it.  I  want  you  to  have  full  credit  for 
the  timely  discovery." 

"  Me?  Why,  it  is  all  yours,  Barbara,  and  you  are 
to  have  all  the  credit  of  it." 

"  Oh,  no.  You  told  me  the  things  that  enabled  me 
to  guess  it  out,  and  I've  only  been  trying  to  help  you. 
I'm  glad  if  I  have  helped,  but  positively  my  name 
mustn't  be  mentioned.     I'm  only  a  woman!  " 

"Only  a  woman!"  Duncan  echoed.  "Only  a 
woman!  Barbara,  God's  wisdom  was  never  so  wise 
as  when  he  created  '  only  a  woman '  to  be  a  '  helpmeet 
for  man.' " 


XXXII 

The  Riddle  Explained 

THE  next  half  hour  was  spent,  as  Barbara 
expressed  it,  in  "  perfecting  the  guess  "  she 
had  made. 

"Tandy  has  gone  into  that  Memphis  and  Ohio 
River  enterprise  up  to  his  eyes,"  said  Duncan. 
"  Naturally,  he  has  got  his  controlling  interest  in 
it  at  an  extremely  low  price,  as  compared  with  the  face 
value  of  the  stock  and  bonds,  for  the  reason  that  the 
road  ends  at  Paducah,  which  is  much  the  same  thing 
as  ending  nowhere. 

"  But  if  he  can  succeed  in  diverting  our  line  to 
Paducah  instead  of  Cairo,  thus  securing  an  entirely 
satisfactory  connection  north  and  east,  his  Memphis 
and  Ohio  road  will  become  part  of  one  of  the  greatest 
trunk  lines  in  this  part  of  the  country,  and  the 
advance  in  his  stock  and  bond  holdings  will  make  him 
one  of  the  richest  men  in  the  West." 

"That  is  what  I  was  thinking,  Guilford,  but  I 
hardly  dared  suggest  it — I  know  so  little.  I  didn't 
know  that  it  would  be  possible  to  change  our  line.     I 

298 


THE   RIDDLE   EXPLAINED  299 

thought  that  maybe  its  charter  compelled  it  to  run 
to  Cairo." 

"No,  unfortunately,  it  doesn't.  Tandy  secured 
the  charter  in  the  first  place,  before  Hallam  and 
Stafford  went  into  the  project.  I  wonder,"  he  added 
with  a  puzzled  look,  "  I  wonder  if  the  old  schemer  was 
looking  this  far  ahead.  At  any  rate,  the  charter,  as 
Tandy  had  it  drawn,  requires  only  that  the  line  shall 
be  so  located  and  constructed  as  to  connect  the  rail- 
roads running  east  from  its  eastern  terminus  with 
the  Mississippi  River — it  doesn't  say  at  what  point. 
That  requirement  would  be  fully  met,  of  course,  if  the 
road  should  be  diverted  to  Paducah,  connecting  there 
with  the  line  to  Memphis." 

"  But  why  did  Tandy  want  that  county  line  pro- 
vision put  into  the  bond  subscription?" 

"  Look  at  the  map  again.  Those  two  counties  lie 
west  of  the  point  at  which  the  road  must  be  turned 
south  if  it  is  to  be  diverted  to  Paducah.  If  we  fail 
to  build  across  that  county  line  by  noon  of  the  fifteenth 
of  next  March,  the  subscriptions  of  both  those 
counties  will  be  forfeited.  Then  Tandy  will  step  in 
and  offer  the  company  that  is  building  the  line  a 
much  larger  subscription  of  some  sort  from  Paducah 
and  from  his  Memphis  road,  as  an  inducement  to 
shorten  the  line  by  taking  it  to  Paducah  instead  of 
Cairo." 

"That  would  ruin  Cairo?"  the  girl  asked,  anx- 
iously. 


300         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"  It  would  be  a  terrible  blow  to  the  city's  prosperity. 
But,"  looking  at  his  watch,  "  I  must  lay  this  matter 
before  Hallam  and  Stafford  to-night,  late  as  it  is." 

Then,  going  to  the  little  telegraph  instrument 
which,  for  his  own  convenience,  he  had  installed  in 
Barbara's  house,  he  called  Captain  Hallam  out  of 
bed  and  clicked  off  the  message: 

The  milk  in  the  cocoanut  is  accounted  for.  I  must  see 
you  and  Stafford  to-night,  without  fail.  Summon  him.  I'll 
go  up  to  your  house  at  once. 

It  did  not  require  much  time  or  many  words  for 
Duncan  to  explain  the  situation  as  he  now  understood 
it.  Nor  was  there  the  slightest  ground  for  doubt 
that  the  solution  reached  was  altogether  the  correct 
one. 

"It's  a  deep  game  he's  been  playing,"  said 
Hallam. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  finest  combinations  I  ever  heard 
of,"  responded  Stafford.  "You've  a  mighty  long 
head,  Duncan,  to  work  out  such  a  puzzle." 

"  Don't  be  too  complimentary  to  my  head.  I  didn't 
work  it  out,"  responded  the  younger  man. 

"  You  didn't  ?     Who  did,  then  ?  " 

"  Barbara  Verne !  She  forbade  me  to  mention  her 
name,  but  I  will  not  sail  under  false  colors." 

"  Well,  now,  I  want  to  say,"  said  Stafford,  "  that 
you've  a  mighty  long  head,  anyhow,  to  make  a  coun- 
selor of  such  a  girl  as  Barbara  Verne.     It's  the  very 


THE   RIDDLE   EXPLAINED  301 

wisest  thing  you  ever  did  in  your  life,  and  the 
wisest  you  ever  will  do  till  you  make  her  your  wife. 
Of  course,  that  will  come  in  due  time?  " 

"I  hope  so,  but  I  am  not  sure  I  can  accomplish 
that." 

"Really?" 

"Really." 

"  Why,  I  had  supposed  it  was  all  arranged.    Why 

haven't  you " 

"  Perhaps  I  have.  At  any  rate,  the  doubt  I  spoke 
of  is  not  due  to  any  neglect  of  opportunity  on  my 
part.  But  we  must  get  to  business.  It  is  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  We've  found  out  old 
Napper's  game.  Now,  what  are  we  going  to  do 
about  it?" 

During  this  little  side  conversation,  Hallam  had 
been  pacing  the  floor,  thinking.  He  now  began 
issuing  his  orders,  like  shots  from  a  rapid-fire  gun. 

"Go  to  the  instrument  there,  Duncan,  and  tele- 
graph Temple  to  come  to  Cairo  by  the  first  train. 
Tell  him  to  give  instructions  to  his  assistant  as  to  the 
running  of  the  mine  during  a  long  absence  on  his 
part." 

When  Duncan  had  finished  the  work  of  telegraph- 
ing, Hallam  turned  to  him,  saying: 

"  You,  Duncan,  are  to  start  for  New  York  on  the 
seven  o'clock  train  this  morning.  Leave  your  proxy 
with  Stafford  to  vote  your  stock  in  the  present  com- 
pany, and " 


302         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"What's  jour  plan,  Hallam?"  interrupted  Staf- 
ford. 

"To  give  old  Napper  Tandy  the  very  hardest 
lesson  he's  ever  had  to  learn  at  my  hands.  You  and 
I  will  call  a  meeting  of  the  company  immediately,  and 
make  Duncan  president." 

"  But  how  are  we  to  get  rid  of  Tandy  ?  " 
"  Ask  him  to  resign,  and  kick  him  out  if  he  doesn't. 
But  listen  !  We've  no  time  to  waste.  We'll  reorgan- 
ize this  company — making  it  a  real  railroad  company 
to  build  the  road,  instead  of  being  the  mere  project- 
ing company  it  is  now.  You  and  I  and  Duncan  will 
put  all  the  money  we  can  spare  into  it,  and  we'll  make 
every  man  in  Cairo  who's  got  anything  beyond  funeral 
expenses  put  it  in.  All  the  subscriptions  already  made 
to  the  inducement  fund  we'll  convert  into  perma- 
nent stock  subscriptions.  Then,  with  the  county, 
city,  and  town  subscriptions  in  hand,  we'll  have  about 
four  millions  of  our  stock  subscribed.  We  must  have 
twelve  millions  of  stock  in  all.  It  is  for  you,  Duncan, 
to  find  the  rest  in  New  York.  You  must  see  capi- 
talists and  persuade  them  to  go  in  with  us,  as  sub- 
scribers, either  to  the  stock  or  to  the  construction 
bonds  that  we'll  issue.  You  are  to  use  your  own 
judgment  and  we'll  back  you  up." 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with  Temple?  " 
"Make  him  chief  engineer  to  the  company,  and 
set  him  at  work  surveying  and  locating  the  line  at 
once.     It's   now   three   o'clock.     You   must   go   and 


THE  RIDDLE   EXPLAINED 

pack  your  trunk,  Duncan.  I'll  telegraph  you  in 
New  York,  telling  you  everything  you  need  to  know. 
Take  your  copy  of  our  private  cipher  code  with  you, 
in  case  we  should  have  confidential  communications 
to  make.  Go,  now.  I'll  smooth  your  way  by  tele- 
graphing our  correspondents  in  New  York,  and  the 
officers  of  the  Fourth  National,  asking  them  to  help 
you.  Stafford,  you'd  better  go  home,  now.  You're 
getting  along  in  life,  you  know,  and  need  your 
sleep."  Stafford  was  about  ten  years  younger  than 
Hallam. 

So  ended  a  conference  that  was  destined,  by  the 
success  or  failure  of  its  purpose,  to  decide  the  fate 
of  a  great  enterprise  and  the  future  of  a  thriving  city 
—to  say  nothing  of  the  career  of  a  brilliant  young 
man. 


XXXIII 

At  Crisis 

IT  was  December  now,  and  winter  had  set  in 
early.  Temple  found  it  exceedingly  difficult  to 
secure  the  assistant  surveyors,  rodmen,  chainmen, 
and  the  rest,  whose  services  were  absolutely  necessary, 
but  by  dint  of  hard  work,  he  at  last  completed  the 
organization  of  his  several  engineering  corps,  and  set 
to  work  surveying  the  line,  locating  it,  establishing 
grades,  and  the  like. 

Hurry  it  as  he  might,  the  work  was  very  slow,  be- 
cause of  the  bad  weather,  but  at  least  it  went  forward, 
and  early  in  January  gangs  of  men  were  sent  into 
each  county  to  make  a  show,  at  least,  of  construction 
work,  and  thus  to  avoid  all  possibility  of  the  for- 
feiture of  the  county  and  town  subscriptions. 

The  greatest  difficulty  encountered  was  in  meeting 
the  requirement  that  a  car  should  actually  cross  the 
line  between  the  two  counties  by  noon  of  the  fifteenth 
of  March.  That  part  of  the  line  was  peculiarly  diffi- 
cult of  access.  It  could  be  reached  only  by  a  twenty- 
five  mile  journey  across  country,  over  roads  which, 

304 


AT    CRISIS  305 

in  the  winter,  were  well-nigh  impassable.  In  order  to 
build  any  sort  of  railroad  line  at  the  point  involved, 
it  was  necessary  to  carry  across  country  all  the  tools, 
earth  cars,  and  construction  materials,  together  with 
a  large  company  of  workmen.  Huts  must  be  built  to 
shield  the  men  from  the  severity  of  the  weather,  and 
provisions  for  them  must  be  hauled  over  twenty-five 
miles  of  swamp  roads.  In  order  to  do  so,  streams  must 
be  bridged  for  the  wagons,  and  in  many  places  the 
road  must  be  "corduroyed"  for  many  miles  of  its 
extent.  That  is  to  say,  it  must  be  paved  with  un- 
hewn logs,  laid  side  by  side  across  it. 

It  was  near  the  end  of  February,  therefore,  before 
anything  like  systematic  construction  at  that  point 
could  be  got  under  way. 

Meanwhile,  Duncan's  mission  to  New  York  had 
been  successful,  though  it  was  attended  by  much  of 
difficulty.  He  had  secured  the  necessary  stock  sub- 
scriptions, and  better  still,  he  had  succeeded  in 
inducing  one  of  the  great  trunk  lines  of  the  East  to 
guarantee  a  considerable  bond  issue  on  the  part  of 
the  new  road,  under  an  agreement  that  when  com- 
pleted it  should  be  made,  in  effect,  an  extension  of  the 
eastern  company's  lines. 

The  only  problem  now  was  to  prevent  that  diversion 
of  the  proposed  line  which  Tandy  was  openly 
trying  to  bring  about.  The  New  York  capitalists 
whom  Duncan  had  secured  as  stockholders  in  the 
enterprise,  were,  many  of  them,  disposed  to  look  upon 


306         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

the  proposed  change  of  terminus  from  Cairo  to  the 
rival  city  with  a  good  deal  of  favor.  Such  a  change 
would  considerably  shorten  the  line  to  be  built,  and 
the  connection  southwest  from  Paducah  to  Memphis 
was  in  some  respects  a  more  desirable  one  than  that 
from  Cairo. 

But  Duncan  had  secured  from  the  capitalists  a 
trustworthy  promise  that  the  line  should  be  built  to 
Cairo,  as  originally  planned,  provided  the  Cairo 
people,  with  Duncan,  Hallam,  and  Stafford  at  their 
head,  should  protect  the  subscriptions  of  the  two 
hesitating  counties  by  meeting  the  requirement  im- 
posed at  Tandy's  suggestion.  Thus  everything  de- 
pended upon  the  completion  of  a  track  across  that 
county  line  before  noon  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  March. 

Temple  had  succeeded  in  getting  the  work  started, 
but  the  task  was  a  Herculean  one.  Duncan  hurried 
to  the  scene  of  action  as  soon  as  he  returned  from 
New  York  to  Cairo.  He  found  that  the  space  to  be 
built  over  was  very  low-lying,  and  that  the  nearest 
source  of  supply  for  earth  with  which  to  build  the 
high  embankment  required  was  nearly  two  miles 
distant. 

Temple  had  begun  work  at  that  point.  He  was 
extending  an  embankment  thence  toward  the  point 
where  the  county  line  must  be  crossed.  On  this  he 
was  laying  a  temporary  track  as  fast  as  it  was  ex- 
tended, in  order  that  his  earth  cars  might  be  pushed 
over  it  with  their  loads  of  filling  material. 


AT    CRISIS  307 

Duncan's  first  look  at  the  progress- of  the  work  con- 
vinced him  that  it  could  not  be  completed  within  the 
time  allowed,  unless  a  much  larger  working  force 
could  be  secured. 

He  instantly  telegraphed  to  Hallam: 

Must  have  more  men  immediately.  If  you  can  send  two 
hundred  at  once  there  is  a  bare  possibility  of  success,  pro- 
vided weather  conditions  do  not  grow  worse.  But  without 
that  many  men  failure  is  inevitable.  Why  not  send  all  your 
miners  here? 

Hallam,  in  his  habitual  way,  acted  promptly  and 
with  vigor.  Leaving  Stafford  to  hire  all  the  men 
who  could  be  secured  in  Cairo,  he  himself  hurried  to 
the  mines,  and  by  promising  double  wages,  induced 
most  of  the  men  there  to  go  for  the  time  being  into 
the  work  of  railroad  construction.  Within  two  or 
three  days  the  total  force  at  Duncan's  command  num- 
bered somewhat  more  than  two  hundred  men. 

"We  ought  to  have  fifty  or  a  hundred  more,"  he 
said,  "  particularly  as  the  miners  are  new  to  this  sort 
of  work ;  but,  as  we  can't  get  them,  we  must  do  our 
best  with  the  force  we  have." 

After  consultation  with  Temple,  he  divided  the 
force  into  three  shifts,  and  kept  the  work  going  night 
and  day,  without  cessation.  For  a  time  the  rapid 
progress  made  gave  Duncan  confidence  in  his  ultimate 
success.  In  that  confidence  Temple  shared,  but  with 
a  reservation. 

"  I'm  afraid  we're  in  for  a  freshet,"  he  said.     "  The 


A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

rivers  are  all  rising,  and  the  rain  is  almost  continuous 
now.  All  this  region,  except  a  hill  here  and  there, 
lies  lower  than  the  flood  levels  of  the  Ohio  River  on 
one  side,  and  the  Mississippi  on  the  other.  If  the 
rise  continues,  we  shall  have  both  rivers  on  us  within 
a  few  days." 

"Is  there  any  way  in  which  to  meet  that  diffi- 
culty?" asked  Duncan  anxiously. 

"Yes—possibly,"  Temple  responded,  slowly  and 
hesitatingly.  "We  might  build  a  crib  across  the 
space  still  to  be  filled  in,  and  make  it  serve  the  pur- 
poses of  a  coffer  dam  in  some  degree.  By  doing  that, 
we  can  keep  the  work  going,  even  if  the  overflow  from 
the  rivers  comes  upon  us.  But  the  building  of  the 
crib  will  take  time,  and  we've  no  time  to  waste,  you 
know." 

"  Yes,  I  know  that.  Still,  if  it  becomes  necessary, 
we  must  build  it.  I'll  tell  you  this  evening  what  is 
to  be  done." 

For  convenience  and  quickness  of  communication, 
Duncan  had  strung  a  telegraph  wire  from  tree  to 
tree  through  the  woods  to  the  point  where  the  work 
was  in  progress.  He  instantly  telegraphed  Hallam, 
saying: 

Find  out  and  telegraph  flood  prospect.  How  long  before 
the  rise  in  rivers  will  drown  us  out  here?  Everything  depends 
on  early  and  accurate  information  as  to  that. 

The  answer  came  back  within  half  an  hour.  Hal- 
lam telegraphed: 


AT    CRISIS  309 

Have  already  made  telegraphic  inquiries  at  all  points  on  all 
the  rivers.  Reports  very  discouraging.  Probability  is  you'll  be 
flooded  within  three  days.    I'll  be  with  you  to-morrow. 

The  space  to  be  cribbed,  so  that  the  work  of  filling 
might  go  on  in  spite  of  floods,  was  comparatively 
small,  but  the  task  of  cribbing  it,  even  in  the  rudest 
fashion,  occupied  nearly  the  whole  working  force  dur- 
ing three  precious  days  and  nights.  Worse  still,  in 
order  to  hurry  it,  Temple  made  the  mistake  of  work- 
ing the  men  overtime.  As  an  inducement,  Hallam 
promised  to  increase  the  double  wage  per  hour,  which 
the  men  were  already  receiving,  to  triple  wages,  on 
condition  that  they  should  work  in  two,  instead  of 
three  shifts.  As  the  work  was  exhausting  in  its 
nature,  and  must  be  done  under  a  deluge  of  bone- 
chilling  rain,  this  overtasking  of  the  men  quickly 
showed  itself  in  their  loss  of  energy  and  courage. 
Some  of  them  threw  up  the  employment  and  made 
their  way  homeward.  All  of  them  were  suffering  and 
discouraged.  But  at  the  end  of  the  three  days,  the 
rude  crib  was  so  far  finished  that  even  should  the 
floods  come,  it  would  still  be  possible  to  continue 
the  work  of  filling  in  by  running  the  dirt  cars  to  the 
slowly  advancing  end  of  the  temporary  track  and 
dropping  their  contents  into  the  crib. 

Thus  the  work  went  slowly  on.  The  men  daily 
showed,  more  and  more,  the  effects  of  their  overwork — 
for  each  was  working  for  twelve  hours  of  each  twenty- 
four  now.     They  grew  sullen  and  moody  of  mind,  and 


310         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

slow  of  movement   and  of  response.     Every   day   a 
few  more  of  them  gave  up  the  task  and  Duncan  began 
seriously    to    fear   that    a    wholesale   quitting    would 
occur  in  spite  of  the  enormous  wages  he  was  paying. 
With  his  soldier  experience,  he  knew  the  symptoms 
of  demoralization  from  overstrain,  and  he  began  now 
to  recognize  them  in  the  conduct  and  countenances  of 
the  men.     His  soldier  life  had  taught  him,  also,  how 
large  a  part  feeding  plays  in  such  a  case  as  this.    He, 
therefore,   minutely   inspected   the   out-of-door   mess 
kitchen,  and  found  it  in  charge  of  careless  and  in- 
competent negro  women,  who  knew  neither  how  to 
cook  nor  how  to  make  food  attractive  in  appearance. 
"The  men  eat  a  good  deal,"  he  said  to  Temple, 
"but    they    are    not    properly    nourished.     I    must 
remedy  that.     We  simply  must  win   this   struggle, 
Dick,  and  we've  only  six  days  more.     If  we  can  keep 
the  men  at  work  for  six  days  and  nights  more,  we'll 
either  finish  or  finally  fail." 

It  was  Duncan's  habit  every  evening  to  call  up 
Barbara's  house  on  the  telegraph  and  hold  a  little 
conversation  with  her  over  the  wire.  She  was  thus 
kept  minutely  informed  of  how  matters  were  going 
with  him,  and  she  was  well-nigh  sleepless  with  anxiety 
lest  he  fail  in  this  crowning  undertaking  of  his 
career. 

Turning  away  from  Temple,  he  went  to  the  tele- 
graphic instrument,  opened  the  circuit  and  called 
Barbara.     He  explained  his  new  difficulty  to  her,  and 


AT    CRISIS  811 

the  vital  importance  of  providing  better  and  more 
abundant  food,  better  cooked. 

"  The  men  have  been  living  on  mess  pork  and  *  salt- 
horse'  for  weeks,  and  both  the  meat  and  the  half- 
baked  dough  served  to  them  for  bread  are  enough  to 
break  the  spirit  even  of  veteran  soldiers.  Now,  I  want 
your  help  in  earnest.  If  we  can  keep  the  men  at  work 
for  six  days  more,  we  shall  have  a  chance,  at  least,  of 
success.  If  we  can't,  failure  is  inevitable.  I  want 
you  to  buy  a  lot  of  the  best  fresh  provisions  you  can 
get  in  Cairo,  and  send  them  here  early  to-morrow 
morning,  in  charge  of  somebody  who  knows  how  to 
hustle.  Send  one  of  my  bank  clerks  if  you  can't  do 
better.  Send  some  molasses,  too,  in  kegs,  not  barrels 
— barrels  take  too  long  to  handle.  Send  eggs,  butter, 
rice,  macaroni,  onions,  turnips,  cheese,  and  above  all, 
some  really  good  coffee.  The  calcined  peas  we've 
been  using  for  coffee  would  discourage  even  Captain 
Hallam  if  he  dared  drink  the  decoction. 

"  Then,  if  possible,  I  want  you  to  send  me  one  or 
two  cooks  who  really  know  what  cooking  means. 
Don't  hesitate  about  wages.  We'll  pay  any  price  if 
you  can  only  find  two  cooks  who  know  the  difference 
between  broiling  beef  and  burning  it.  Till  your  cooks 
come,  I'm  going  to  take  charge  of  the  cooking  my- 
self. I  have  at  least  such  culinary  skill  as  we  old 
rebel  soldiers  could  acquire  when  we  had  next  to 
nothing  to  cook." 
u     Aiid  he  did.     Guilford  Duncan,  distinguished  man 


312         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

of  affairs,  associate  of  financial  nabobs,  bank  presi- 
dent, and  president  of  this  railroad  company,  sat  hour 
after  hour  on  a  log,  or  squatted  before  an  out-door 
fire,  doing  his  best  to  make  palatable  such  foodstuffs 
as  were  to  be  found  in  the  camp. 

"It's  a  sorry  task,"  he  said  to  Temple.  "The 
stuff  isn't  fit  to  eat  at  best.  I  wonder  who  bought  it. 
God  help  the  commissary  who  should  have  issued  it 
as  rations,  even  in  the  starvation  days  of  the  Army 
of  Northern  Virginia.  The  men  would  have  made 
meat  of  him.  But  I  can  at  least  make  it  look  a  little 
more  palatable,  and  perhaps  improve  its  flavor  a 
little  in  the  .cooking,  till  Barbara  sends  fresh  sup- 
plies and  some  capable  cooks." 

"  What  answer  did  she  make  to  you  when  you 
telegraphed  ?  " 

"Hardly  any  at  all,"  he  answered.  She  clicked 
out — *  I'll  do  my  best,'  and  then  shut  off  the  circuit, 
without  even  a  word  of  encouragement  or  sympathy. 
I'm  seriously  afraid  she  is  ill.  You  know  she  shares 
our  anxiety,  and  she  hasn't  been  sleeping  much,  I 
imagine,  since  our  troubles  here  reached  a  crisis." 

"That's  your  fault,"  said  Temple.  "You've  told 
her  too  much  of  detail.  My  Mary  would  be  sleepless, 
too,  if  I  had  kept  her  minutely  informed  of  matters 
here.  So  I've  only  telegraphed  her  now  and  then, 
saying :  '  Doing  our  best,  and  hopeful.  Love  to  the 
baby,'  and  she  has  responded:  'Your  best  is  always 
good.     Go  on  doing  it.     Baby  well,'  or  something  like 


AT    CRISIS  313 

that.  If  you  ever  get  married,  Duncan,  you'll  learn 
to  practice  certain  reserves  with  your  wife — for  her 
sake." 

"  No  I  won't." 

"  But  why  so  sure?" 

"  Because,  if  I  ever  marry,  my  wife  will  be  a  cer- 
tain little  woman  whose  fixed  determination  it  will  be 
to  share  both  my  triumphs  and  my  perplexities — 
especially  the  perplexities.  She  will  permit  no 
reserves — God  bless  her  for  the  most  supremely  un- 
selfish and  heroically  helpful  woman  that  He  ever 
made!" 

"  How  women  do  differ  in  their  ways ! "  said  Tem- 
ple, half  musingly. 

"Yes,  and  how  stupidly  men  blunder  in  not  ade- 
quately recognizing  and  respecting  their  varying 
attitudes  and  temperaments!  Do  you  know,  Dick,  I 
think  life  is  fearfully  hard  upon  women  and  very 
unjust  to  them,  even  at  its  best;  and  it  is  my  con- 
viction that  the  hardship  might  be  very  largely  re- 
lieved and  the  injustice  remedied,  if  men  only  had 
sense  enough  to  discover  and  grace  enough  to  recog- 
nize the  individualities  and  idiosyncracies  of  the 
women  with  whom  they  are  associated?  " 

"  I  think  the  trouble  is  not  there,"  responded  Tem- 
ple. "Most  men  understand  their  womankind  fairly 
well.  The  trouble  is  that  instead  of  respecting  the 
individualities  of  women  as  something  to  which  they 
have  a  right,  most  men  conceitedly  assume  that  it  is 


314         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

their  duty  to  repress  those  individualities,  to  mould 
their  wives  and  daughters  to  a  model  of  their  own 
shaping.  The  process  is  a  cruel  one  when  it  suc- 
ceeds. When  it  fails,  it  means  wretchedness  all 
around.  Indeed,  I  think  that  absolutely  all  there  is 
of  human  disagreement  of  an  unpleasant  sort, 
whether  between  men  and  women,  or  between  persons 
of  the  same  sex,  is  ultimately  traceable  to  a  failure 
duly  to  recognize  and  respect  the  rights  of  indi- 
viduality." 

"I'm  inclined  to  agree  with  you,"  answered  Dun- 
can; "but  now  I've  got  to  dish  up  and  carve  this 
kettleful  of  corned  beef,  and  you,  I  imagine,  might 
somewhat  expedite  the  work  of  the  earth  shovelers 
by  lending  them  the  light  of  your  countenance  for  a 
time." 

Duncan  had  scarcely  finished  the  dishing  up  of  the 
unsavory  corned  beef,  the  only  merit  of  which  was 
that  it  was  sufficiently  cooked,  when  a  dispatch  came 
to  him  from  the  New  York  bankers  whom  he  had  left 
in  charge  of  the  company's  interests  in  the  financial 
capital.     They  telegraphed: 

Tandy  reports  that  you  have  completely  failed  to  build 
across  county  line.  The  others  give  notice  that  if  so,  they  will 
deflect  road  to  Paducah.  Tandy  offers  subscriptions  of  vast 
sum  from  counties,  towns,  Paducah,  and  his  Memphis  and 
Ohio  road.    What  answer  shall  we  give?    Answer  by  telegraph. 

This  message  acted  like  an  electric  shock.  It 
quickened  every  pulse  of  Duncan's  being.     It  nerved 


AT    CRISIS  3*5 

him  to  new  endeavor  and  renewed  determination.     He 
promptly  replied: 

Tell  them  to  wait  till  time  is  up.  They  have  given  their 
promise  and  I  have  given  mine.  I  will  keep  mine.  They 
must  keep  theirs.    Remind  them  I'm  not  dead  yet. 

Then  Duncan  went  to  inspect  the  progress  of  the 
work. 


XXXIV 

A  Cheer  for  Little  Missie 

IT  was  after  seven  o'clock,  and  darkness  had 
completely  fallen,  when  Barbara  received  Guil- 
ford Duncan's  telegraphic  appeal  for  help  "in 
earnest."  She  wasted  no  time — slow  operator  that 
she  was  on  the  telegraph — in  sending  messages  of 
sympathy  and  reassurance.  She  laboriously  spelled 
out  the  words :  "  I'll  do  my  best,"  and  closed  the  instru- 
ment in  order  that  she  might  attend  to  more  pressing 
things  than  telegraphic  chatting. 

She  summoned  Bob  to  serve  as  her  protector,  and 
promptly  sallied  forth  into  the  night.  The  great 
groceries,  known  as  "boat  stores,"  were  accustomed 
to  be  open  very  late  at  night,  and  often  all  night,  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  stewards  of  steamboats 
landing  at  the  levee.  At  seven  or  eight  in  the  even- 
ing they  were  sure  to  be  open,  with  business  in 
unabated  activity.  But  the  clerks  were  full  of  curi- 
osity when  Barbara,  escorted  only  by  the  negro 
serving  boy,  presented  herself  and  began  rattling  off 
orders  greater  in  volume  than  any  they  had  ever  re- 

3i6 


A   CHEER   FOR   LITTLE   MISSIE    317 

ceived,  even  from  the  steward  of  an  overcrowded  pas- 
senger steamer.  She  began  by  ordering  forty  sugar 
cured  hams  and  four  hindquarters  of  beef.  She  fol- 
lowed up  these  purchases  with  orders  for  four  kegs  of 
molasses,  six  boxes  of  macaroni,  a  barrel  of  rice,  and 
so  on  through  her  list.  Still  more  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  clerks,  she  gave  scarcely  a  moment  to 
the  pricing  of  the  several  articles,  and  seemed  to 
treat  her  purchases  as  matters  of  ordinary  detail. 
They  began  to  understand,  however,  when  she  ordered 
the  goods  sent  that  night  by  express,  to  that  station 
on  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  whic^  lay  nearest  the 
scene  of  Guilford  Duncan's  operations,  and  directed 
that  the  bill  be  sent  to  him  at  the  X  National  Bank 
for  payment. 

Barbara  made  short  work  of  her  buying.  When  it 
was  done  she  hurried  home  and  packed  a  small  trunk 
with  some  simple  belongings  of  her  own.  At  seven 
o'clock  the  next  morning,  accompanied  by  the  negro 
boy  Robert,  she  took  the  train  and  before  noon  found 
herself  at  the  little  station  to  which  she  had  ordered 
the  freight  sent.  She  was  disappointed  to  find  that 
although  she  had  ordered  the  goods  sent  by  express, 
they  had  not  come  by  the  train  on  which  she  had 
traveled. 

The  railroad  was  run  by  telegraphic  orders  in 
those  days,  and  so,  even  at  this  small  station,  there 
was  an  instrument  and  an  operator.  Making  use  of 
these,  Barbara  inquired  concerning  the  freight,  and 


318         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

was  assured  of  its  arrival  by  a  train  due  at  four 
o'clock. 

She  spent  the  intervening  time  in  securing  two 
wagons  with  four  stout  horses  to  each,  and  when  the 
freight  came  it  was  loaded  upon  these  with  particular 
care,  so  that  no  accidents  might  occur  to  delay  the 
journey.  If  the  roads  had  been  even  tolerably  good, 
one  of  the  wagons  might  have  carried  the  load,  per- 
haps, but  the  roads  were  execrably  bad  and  Barbara 
was  not  minded  to  take  any  risks. 

When  the  loading  was  done,  it  was  nearly  night- 
fall, but  the  eager  girl  insisted  upon  starting  im- 
mediately, to  the  profound  disgust  of  her  drivers. 
The  first  ten  miles  of  road  was  the  best  ten  miles,  as 
the  drivers  assured  her,  and  by  insisting  upon  a  start 
that  evening  instead  of  waiting  for  morning,  she 
managed  to  cover  that  part  of  the  distance  by  eleven 
o'clock.  Then  she  established  a  camp,  saw  the 
horses  fed,  gave  the  drivers  a  hot  and  savory  supper, 
and  ordered  them  to  be  ready  to  start  again  at  sun- 
rise. 

On  resuming  the  journey  in  the  morning,  Barbara 
urged  the  teamsters  to  their  best  endeavors,  rein- 
forcing her  plea  for  haste  with  a  promise  of  a  tempt- 
ing money  reward  for  each  of  them  if  they  should 
complete  the  journey  that  day. 

The  drivers  did  their  mightiest  to  earn  the  reward, 
but  the  difficulties  in  the  way  proved  to  be  much 
greater  than  even  they  had  anticipated.     For  the 


A    CHEER   FOR    LITTLE    MISSIE     319. 

two  great  rivers  had  at  last  broken  over  their  banks 
and  their  waters  were  already  spreading  over  the  face 
of  the  land.  The  country  through  which  the  road 
ran  was  slightly  rolling.  The  small  hillocks  were 
secure  from  overflow  at  any  time,  but  the  low-lying 
spaces  between  them  were  already  under  water,  the 
depth  of  which  varied  from  a  few  inches  to  two  or 
three  feet.  The  soft  earth  of  the  roadbed  was  now  a 
mere  quagmire,  through  which  the  horses  laboriously 
dragged  the  wagons  hub  deep  in  mud. 

Worse  still  were  those  stretches  of  road  which  had 
been  corduroyed  with  logs.  For  there  some  of  the 
logs  were  floating  out  of  place,  and  some  were  piled 
on  top  of  those  that  were  still  held  fast  in  the 
mud. 

In  dragging  the  wagons  through  the  mud  reaches, 
it  was  necessary  to  stop  every  few  minutes  to  give  the 
horses  a  breathing  spell.  On  the  corduroy  stretches 
it  was  often  necessary  to  stop  for  half  an  hour  or  more 
at  a  time,  while  the  drivers  and  Bob,  wading  knee 
deep,  made  such  repairs  as  were  possible  and  abso- 
lutely necessary. 

Bob,  with  his  habitual  exuberance  of  spirit,  en- 
joyed all  this  mightily.  The  drivers  did  not  enjoy 
it  at  all.  Several  times,  indeed,  they  wanted  to  aban- 
don the  attempt,  declaring  that  it  was  impossible  to 
go  farther.  But  for  Barbara's  persuasive  urgency, 
they  would  have  unhitched  the  horses  and  gone  home, 
leaving  the  wagons  to  such  fate  as  might  overtake 


A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

them.     As  it  was,  the  caravan  moved  slowly  onward, 
with  many  haltings  and  much  of  weariness. 

It  was  midnight  when,  at  last,  the  flare  of  the 
torches  told  Barbara  that  the  journey  was  done.  Not 
knowing  whither  the  wagons  should  be  taken,  Bar- 
bara bade  Bob  go  and  find  Duncan. 

When  the  young  man  heard  of  Barbara's  arrival, 
he  and  Dick  Temple  hurried  to  her,  full  of  appre- 
hension lest  the  journey  and  the  exposure  should  have 
made  her  ill,  and  fuller  still  of  fear  that  the  conditions 
of  life  in  the  camp  might  prove  to  involve  more  of 
hardship  than  she  could  bear.  For  the  first  time  in 
his  life,  Guilford  Duncan  felt  like  scolding. 

"What  on  earth  are  you  doing  here,  Barbara?" 
he  asked,  and  before  he  could  add  anything  to  the 
question,  she  playfully  answered: 

"Just  now,  I'm  waiting  for  you  to  tell  the  team- 
sters where  to  drive  the  wagons." 

"But  Barbara " 

"  Never  mind  the  rest  of  your  scolding.  I've 
already  rehearsed  it  in  my  imagination  till  I  know 
it  all  by  heart — forwards  and  backwards.  Tell  the 
men  where  the  cooking  place  is." 

"  But  what  are  we  to  do  with  you,  in  all  this  flood 
and  mud,  and  in  the  incessant  rain  ?  " 

"  Just  let  me  alone  while  I  '  help  in  earnest,'  as  you 
said  in  your  dispatch  that  you  wanted  me  to  do.  You 
telegraphed  me  that  you  wanted  two  good  cooks,  so 
here  we  are,  Bob  and  I.     For,  really,  Bob  has  learned 


A   CHEER   FOR   LITTLE   MISSIE     S21 

to  cook  as  well  as  I  can.  I  only  wonder  you  didn't 
send  for  us  sooner.  Now,  we  mustn't  waste  any  more 
time  talking.  I've  got  to  set  to  work  if  the  men  are 
to  have  their  breakfast  on  time,  and  there's  a  lot  of 
unloading  to  do  before  I  can  get  at  the  things." 

The  girl's  voice  was  strained  and  her  manner  not 
quite  natural.  The  long  anxiety  and  the  cold  and 
the  weariness  had  begun  to  tell  upon  her.  She  was 
strong  and  resolute  still,  and  ready  for  any  physical 
effort  or  endurance  that  might  be  required  of  her. 
But  she  felt  that  she  could  stand  no  more  of  emotional 
strain.  So,  speaking  low  to  Duncan,  in  order  that 
his  friend  might  not  hear,  she  said: 

"Please,  Guilford,  don't  say  anything  more  that 
your  tenderness  suggests.  I  can't  stand  it.  Be  just 
commonplace  and  practical.  Show  the  teamsters 
the  way  and  let  me  get  to  work.  I'll  be  happier  then 
and  better." 

Duncan  understood  and  was  wise  enough  to  obey. 
Half  an  hour  later  he  and  Temple  had  gone  back  to 
the  crib,  leaving  Barbara  to  direct  the  unloading  of 
the  wagons.  A  little  later  still,  Bob  and  the  two 
negro  women  who  had  hitherto  done  the  cooking 
went  out  among  the  men  at  work,  bearing  great  ket- 
tles of  steaming  coffee  for  the  refreshment  of  the 
well-nigh  exhausted  toilers.  Bob  accompanied  his 
share  of  the  coffee  distribution  by  a  little  speech  of 
his  own  devising: 

"Dar,  now!    Dat's  coffee  as  is,  an'  it's  hot  an' 


A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

strong,  too.  Little  Missie  done  mek  it  wif  her  own 
han's  and  she's  de  lady  wot  sen's  it  to  you.  She's 
done  come  out  inter  de  wilderness,  jes  to  cook  victuals 
fer  you  men,  and  you  jes  bet  yer  bottom  dollar  you'll 
git  a  breakf  as'  in  the  mawnin'." 

Realizing  the  situation,  and  stimulated  by  their 
deep  draughts  of  coffee,  the  men  set  up  a  cheer  for 
"Little  Missie,"  though  they  knew  not  who  she  was, 
and  thought  of  her  chiefly  as  a  source  of  food  sup- 
ply. But  they  worked  the  better  for  the  coffee,  and 
for  the  promise  it  held  out  of  good  things  to  come. 


XXXV 

The  End  of  a  Struggle 

WHEN  Duncan  and  Temple  went  to  Bar- 
bara's fire  for  their  breakfast,  after  the 
workmen  had  been  served,  both  were  quick- 
witted enough  to  see  that  the  little  lady  was  in  no 
condition  to  endure  emotion  of  any  kind.  She  had 
slept  little  on  the  night  before  leaving  Cairo,  very 
little  more  at  the  night  camp  during  the  journey, 
and  not  at  all  on  the  night  of  her  arrival.  Her  first 
words  indicated  a  purpose  on  her  part  to  fend  off  all 
talk  that  might  touch  upon  personal  matters. 

"Good-morning,  gentlemen,"  she  said.  "I'm 
very  well,  thank  you,  so  you  needn't  ask  me  about 
that,  especially  as  there  are  more  important  things 
to  be  discussed.  I  brought  all  the  supplies  I  could, 
but  after  seeing  the  men  eat,  I  realize  that  we  shall 
run  short  of  food  very  soon.  How  many  more  days 
are  there?" 

"Four  more — including  to-day." 

"Then  you  must  telegraph  at  once  to  Cairo  for 
more  beef,  or  we  shall  run  short.    Please  go  and  tele- 

323 


A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

graph  at  once,  Guilford.     Then  come  back  and  your 
breakfast  will  be  ready." 

When  he  had  gone,  the  girl  turned  to  Temple  and 
said: 

"  Everything  is  ready  for  you  two.  Bob  will  serve 
it.  I  think  I'll  go  and  sleep  a  little,  now.  Don't  fail 
to  wake  me  at  ten  o'clock,  Bob,  and  have  the  roasts 
cut  and  ready  to  hang  over  the  fire  when  I  get  up." 

With  that,  she  tripped  away  to  the  canvas-covered 
wagon,  which  Duncan  had  detained  at  the  camp  to 
serve  her  as  sleeping  quarters. 

Late  in  the  evening  of  that  day,  the  two  teamsters, 
who  had  started  early  in  the  morning  on  their  return 
journey  with  the  other  wagon,  rode  back  into  camp 
on  their  horses.  They  reported  the  water  as  rising 
everywhere.  In  addition  to  the  incoming  flood  from 
the  swollen  rivers,  the  nearly  ceaseless  rain  had  made 
raging  torrents  of  all  the  creeks,  and  lakes  of  all  the 
valleys.  The  teamsters  had  been  obliged  to  abandon 
their  wagon,  wholly  unable  to  make  their  way  fur- 
ther. 

"  Then  we  shall  get  no  more  provisions,"  said  Bar-  < 
bara,  in  a  sadly  troubled  voice. 

"  And  that's  a  pity,"  answered  Temple.  "  For  the 
men's  spirits  have  greatly  revived  under  the  stimulus 
of  your  improved  commissariat,  Miss  Barbara.  How 
long  will  your  supplies  last?" 

"I've  enough  coffee,  flour,  and  molasses,"  she  an- 
swered, "to  last  through.     But  the  fresh  meat  will 


THE    END    OF    A    STRUGGLE       325 

be  exhausted  by  to-morrow  night.  The  hams  will 
help  out,  for  breakfasts,  but  they  won't  go  far  among 
two  hundred  men.  I'm  sorry  I  couldn't  have  brought 
more." 

"You  could  not  have  got  through  at  all  if  your 
loads  had  been  heavier,"  said  Duncan.  "We  must 
simply  do  the  best  we  can  with  what  we've  got.  The 
coffee  alone  will  go  far  to  sustain  the  men,  and  the 
molasses  will  be  a  valuable  substitute  for  meat.  I 
still  have  hopes  that  we  shall  win." 

"  Oh,  we  must  win,  you  know.  You  mustn't  allow 
yourself  to  think  of  anything  else." 

"  We'll  try,  at  any  rate,  and  with  your  superb 
courage  to  help  us,  I  think  we  shall  win." 

It  was  six  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  last  day, 
when  the  night  gave  its  first  intimation  of  a  purpose 
to  come  to  an  end.  In  the  slow-coming  gray  of  the 
dawn,  the  torches  still  flared,  casting  long  and  dis- 
torted shadows  of  the  work-weary  men,  as  they  con- 
tinued their  toil.  During  that  last  night  the  entire 
company  had  been  kept  at  work  in  a  last  desperate 
effort  to  accomplish  the  end  so  vitally  necessary.  All 
night  long  Duncan  had  done  what  he  could  to  en- 
courage the  toilers,  while  Temple  had  given  his  at- 
tention to  such  devices  as  might  shorten  the  task,  or 
otherwise  facilitate  its  doing.  All  night  long  Bar- 
bara had  busied  herself  furnishing  limitless  coffee  as 
an  atonement  for  the  insufficient  food  the  men  had 


326         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

had  since  her  supplies  of  meat  ran  out,  two  days 
before. 

During  the  last  half  hour  the  rain  had  almost 
ceased,  and  Guilford  Duncan  had  indulged  an 
anxious  hope  that  the  skies  might  clear  away  with 
the  sunrise,  but  just  as  the  gray  of  morning  began 
to  give  light  enough  for  the  workmen  to  see  without 
the  aid  of  the  torches,  the  downpour  began  again, 
more  pitilessly  than  ever. 

Its  discouraging  effect  upon  the  already  exhausted 
men  was  instantly  apparent.  A  dozen  of  them  at 
once  quitted  work  and  doggedly  sat  down  in  the  mud 
of  the  embankment.  Two  or  three  others,  reckless  of 
everything  but  their  own  suffering,  stretched  them- 
selves at  full  length  to  sleep  where  they  were — too 
weary  and  hopeless,  now,  even  to  seek  the  less  uncom- 
fortable spots  in  which  to  rest  their  worn-out  bodies. 

"Six  hours  more,"  said  Duncan,  looking  at  his 
watch.  "Only  six  hours  between  us  and  triumph. 
Only  six  hours — and  we  must  lose  all,  simply  because 
the  men  are  done  up." 

"  We'll  do  it  yet,"  answered  young  Temple. 

"  We  never  can.  Those  fellows  are  done  for,  I  tell 
you.  I  know  the  symptoms.  They've  lost  their 
morale,  lost  the  ambition  for  success.  I've  seen  sol- 
diers fall  in  precisely  that  way,  too  far  gone  even  to 
shelter  themselves  from  a  cannonade." 

For  the  first  time  in  his  life,  Guilford  Duncan 
realized  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  Impossible. 


THE    END    OF    A    STRUGGLE       $Z1 

For  the  first  time,  he  recognized  the  fact  that  there 
may  be  things  which  even  courage  and  determination 
cannot  achieve. 

The  simple  fact  was  that  the  long  strain  had 
at  last  begun  to  tell,  even  upon  his  resolute  spirit. 
For  three  days  and  nights  now  he  had  not  slept 
For  three  days  and  nights  he  had  not  sat  down.  For 
three  days  and  nights  he  had  been  wading  in  water 
and  struggling  in  mud,  and  exhausting  all  his  re- 
sources of  mind  and  character  in  efforts  to  stimulate 
the  men  to  continued  endeavor. 

He  was  playing  for  a  tremendous  stake,  as  we 
know.  His  career,  his  future,  all  that  he  had  ever 
dreamed  of  of  ambition,  hung  upon  success  or  failure 
in  this  undertaking,  and  now  at  last,  and  in  spite  of 
his  heroic  struggle,  failure  stared  him  in  the  face. 

And  apart  from  these  considerations  of  self-inter- 
est, there  were  other  and  higher  things  to  be  thought 
of.  If  he  failed  now,  an  enterprise  must  be  lost  in 
which  he  had  labored  for  a  year  to  induce  others  to 
invest  millions.  If  he  failed,  the  diversion  of  this  rail- 
road from  its  original  course  must  become  an  accom- 
plished fact,  to  the  ruin  of  his  adopted  city  and 
the  paralysis  of  growth  in  all  that  region,  for  perhaps 
ten  years  to  come.  Thus  his  own  career,  the  millions 
of  other  men's  money,  which  had  been  risked  upon 
faith  in  his  power  to  achieve,  and,  worst  of  all,  the 
development  of  all  this  fair,  but  very  backward  region 
— all  of  good  to  others,  of  which  he  had  dreamed,  and 


A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

for  which  he  had  hoped  and  toiled — depended  upon 
his  success  or  failure  in  keeping  two  hundred  utterly 
worn-out  men  at  work  in  the  rain,  the  water,  and  the 
mud,  for  six  hours  more. 

At  last,  this  resolute  man,  whose  courage  had  seemed 
unconquerable,  was  discouraged. 

"Might  as  well  give  it  up,"  said  Will  Hallam. 
"  The  men  simply  will  not  work  any  longer." 

"  It  isn't  a  case  of  will  not,  but  of  cannot,"  an- 
swered Duncan. 

Barbara  heard  all,  as  she  hovered  over  the  fire  of 
logs,  and  busied  herself  with  her  tasks,  regardless  of 
rain  and  weariness,  regardless  of  every  consideration 
of  self.  She  wore  no  wraps  or  protection  of  any 
kind  against  the  torrents  of  rain.  "  They  would 
simply  bother  me,"  she  said,  when  urged  to  protect 
her  person.  Her  face  was  flushed  by  the  heat  of  the 
fire,  but  otherwise  she  was  very  pale,  and  her  tightly 
compressed  lips  were  livid  as  she  straightened  herself 
up  to  answer  Duncan's  despairing  words. 

"You  are  wrong,"  she  said.  "They  can  work  a 
little  longer  if  they  will.  It  is  for  us  to  put  will  into 
them.  Call  them  to  the  fire,  a  dozen  or  twenty  at  a 
time,  for  breakfast.  I've  something  new  and  tempt- 
ing for  them — something  that  will  renew  their 
strength.  You  and  Captain  Hallam  and  Mr.  Tem- 
ple must  do  the  rest." 

A  dozen  of  the  men  had  already  come  with  their  tin 
cups  to  drink  again  of  the  strong  coffee  that  Barbara 


THE    END    OF    A    STRUGGLE       329 

had  been  serving  to  them  at  intervals  throughout  the 
night.  She  had  something  more  substantial  for  them 
now. 

She  had  by  her  a  barrel  full  of  batter,  and  she  and 
the  negro  boy,  Bob,  each  with  two  large  frying  pans, 
were  making  griddle  cakes  with  astonishing  rapidity. 
To  each  of  the  men  she  gave  one  of  the  tin  plates,  with 
half  a  dozen  of  the  hot  cakes  upon  it,  bidding  each 
help  himself  to  molasses  from  the  half  barrel,  from 
which,  for  convenience  of  ladling,  Bob  had  removed 
the  head. 

"This  is  breakfast,"  she  said  to  the  men,  as  they 
refreshed  themselves.  "There'll  be  dinner,  and  a 
good  one,  ready  for  all  of  you  at  noon,  when  the  work 
is  done." 

The  men  were  too  far  exhausted  to  greet  her  sug- 
gestion with  enthusiasm.  The  few  words  they  spoke 
in  response  were  words  of  discouragement,  and  even 
of  despair.  They  did  not  tell  her  that  they  had 
decided  to  work  no  more,  but  she  saw  clearly  that  they 
were  on  the  point  of  such  decision.  The  breakfast 
she  was  serving  comforted  them  and  gave  them 
some  small  measure  of  fresh  strength,  but  it  did  not 
give  them  courage  enough  to  overcome  their  wear- 
iness. The  girl  saw  clearly  that  something  more 
effective  must  be  devised  and  done. 

She  puckered  her  forehead  quizzically — after  her 
manner  when  working  out  a  problem  in  arithmetic. 
After  a  little    the  wrinkles  passed  away,  and  lifting 


A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

her  eyes  for  a  moment  from  her  frying  pans,  she 
called  to  Captain  Hallam : 

"Would  you  mind  coming  here  a  minute?"  she 
asked. 

The  man  of  affairs  responded,  wearily,  but 
promptly. 

"What  is  it,  Barbara?" 

"May  I  spend  two  thousand  dollars,  if  I  get  this 
job  done  by  noon? — that's  the  last  minute,  Mr.  Dun- 
can tells  me." 

"  But  how  can  you " 

"  Never  mind  how.  May  I  have  the  two  thousand 
dollars?" 

"Yes — twenty  thousand — any  amount,  if  only  we 
succeed  in  pushing  that  car  on  rails  across  the  county 
line  before  the  clock  strikes  twelve." 

"  Very  well.  I'll  see  what  I  can  do.  Mr.  Duncan, 
can  you  cook  griddle  cakes  ?  " 

"  Happily,  yes,"  answered  he.  "  I'm  an  old  soldier, 
you  know." 

"  Very  well,  then.  Please  come  here  and  cook  for 
a  little  while — just  till  I  get  back.     I  won't  be  long." 

Duncan  took  command  of  her  two  frying  pans.  A 
little  amused  smile  appeared  on  his  face  as  he  did  so, 
in  spite  of  his  discouragement  and  melancholy.  But 
to  the  common  sense  and  sincerity  of  the  girl,  there 
seemed  nothing  ludicrous  in  setting  him  thus  to  the 
undignified  work.  Intent  upon  her  scheme,  she 
darted  away  to  where  the  several  gangs  of  men  were 


THE    END    OF    A    STRUGGLE        331 

still  making  some   pretense   of  working.     To  each 
gang,  she  said: 

"  I've  got  two  thousand  dollars  for  you  men,  if  you 
stick  to  your  work  and  finish  it  before  noon  to-day. 
I'll  divide  the  money  equally  among  all  the  men  who 
stick.  It  will  be  ten  dollars  apiece,  or  more.  Of 
course,  you'll  get  your  triple  wages  besides.  Will 
you  keep  it  up?     It's  only  for  a  few  hours  more." 

Her  tone  was  eager,  and  her  manner  almost  pite- 
ously  pleading.  Without  the  persuasiveness  of  her 
personal  appeal,  it  is  doubtful  that  the  men  would 
have  yielded  to  the  temptation  of  the  extra  earning. 
Even  with  her  influence  added,  more  than  a  third  of 
them — those  who  had  already  cast  their  tools  aside 
and  surrendered  to  exhaustion — refused  to  go  on 
again  with  a  task  to  which  they  felt  themselves  hope- 
lessly unequal.  But  in  every  gang  she  addressed, 
there  was  a  majority  of  men  who  braced  themselves 
anew,  and  responded.  The  very  last  of  the  gangs  to 
whom  she  made  her  appeal  put  their  response  into  the 
form  of  a  cheer,  and  instantly  the  other  gangs 
echoed  it. 

"What  on  earth  has  that  girl  said  or  done  to  the 
men  to  fetch  a  cheer  from  them!"  ejaculated  Will 
Hallam. 

"Reckon  Little  Missie's  jest  done  bewitched  'em," 
responded  Bob,  as  he  poured  batter  into  his  pans. 

A  moment  later  Barbara,  with  a  face  that  had  not 
yet  relaxed  its  look  of  intense  earnestness,  returned 


332         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

to  the  fire,  and  resumed  her  work  over  the  frying 
pans. 

"Thank  you,  Mr.  Duncan,"  was  all  she  said  in 
recognition  of  his  service  as  a  maker  of  griddle  cakes. 
But  she  added: 

"The  men  will  stick  to  work,  now,  I  think — or 
most  of  them,  at  any  rate.  Perhaps  you  and  Mr. 
Temple  can  do  something  to  shorten  it — to  lessen  the 
amount." 

Then,  turning  to  Bob,  she  issued  her  orders: 

"  Bring  the  hog,  Bob,  as  quickly  as  you  can. 
There's  barely  time  to  roast  it,  before  noon." 

The  men  had  nearly  all  had  their  breakfasts  now, 
so  that  the  making  of  griddle  cakes  had  about  ceased. 
Hallam,  Duncan,  and  the  young  engineer,  Temple, 
taking  new  courage  from  Barbara's  report  concern- 
ing the  disposition  of  the  men,  were  going  about 
among  the  gangs,  wading  knee  deep  in  water  and 
mud,  and  giving  such  directions  as  were  needed. 

Duncan,  especially,  was  rendering  service.  As  an 
old  soldier,  who  had  had  varied  experience  in  the  hur- 
ried construction  of  earthworks  under  difficulties,  he 
was  able  in  many  ways  to  hasten  the  present  work. 
One  thing  he  hit  upon  which  went  far  to  make  success 
possible.  That  end  of  the  crib  which  reached  and 
crossed  the  county  line  offered  a  cavernous  space  to 
be  filled  in.  It  was  thickly  surrounded  by  trees,  and 
Duncan  ordered  all  these  felled,  directing  the  chop- 
ping so  that  the  trunks  and  branches  should  fall  into 


THE    END    OF    A    STRUGGLE       3B3 

the  crib.  Then  setting  men  to  chop  off  such  of  the 
branches  as  protruded  above  the  proposed  embankment 
level,  and  let  them  fall  into  the  unoccupied  spaces,  he 
presently  had  that  part  of  the  crib  loosely  filled  in  with 
a  tangled  mass  of  timber  and  tree  tops. 

Gangs  of  men  were  meanwhile  pushing  cars  along 
the  temporary  track,  and  dumping  their  loads  of 
earth  among  the  felled  trees.  Duncan,  with  a  small 
gang,  was  extending  these  temporary  tracks  along 
the  crib  as  fast  as  the  earth  dumped  in  provided  a 
sufficient  bed. 

This  work  of  filling  was  very  slow,  of  course,  and 
when  Duncan's  watch  showed  ten  o'clock,  he  was  well- 
nigh  ready  to  despair.  Under  the  strain  of  his 
anxiety  he  had  forgotten  to  take  any  breakfast,  and 
the  prolonged  exposure  to  water  and  rain  had  so  far 
depressed  his  vitality  that  he  now  found  a  chill  creep- 
ing over  him.  He  hurried  to  Barbara's  fire  for  some 
coffee  and  a  few  mouthfuls  of  greatly  needed  food. 
There  for  the  first  time  he  saw  what  Barbara's 
promised  dinner  was  to  be.  The  two  separated  halves 
of  a  dressed  hog  hung  before  and  partly  over  the  fire, 
roasting. 

"Where  on  earth  did  you  get  that?"  he  asked  in 
astonishment. 

"Bob  got  it    last    night,"    she    answered,    "and 
dressed  it  himself." 

"  But  where,  and  how  ?  " 

"I  don't  know  yet.     He  laughs  when  I  ask  ques- 


334         A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

tions.  I'm  sorely  afraid  Bob  stole  the  hog  from  some 
farmer.  I  sent  him  out  with  some  money  to  buy  what- 
ever meat  he  could  find,  for  I  saw  that  the  men  must 
have  substantial  food.  He  came  back  about  daylight, 
and  told  me  he  had  a  dressed  hog  'out  dar  in  de 
bushes.9  He  gave  me  back  all  the  money  I  had  given 
him,  and,  as  I  say,  he  simply  laughs  when  I  ask  ques- 
tions. I'll  make  him  tell  me  all  about  it  this  afternoon. 
If  he  stole  the  hog,  we  can  pay  for  it.  And  mean- 
while the  men  shall  have  their  dinner.  How  is  the 
work  getting  on  ?  " 

"Rapidly— but  not  rapidly  enough,  I  fear.  I 
must  hurry  back  now." 

"  I'll  go  with  you,"  said  the  girl.  "  Bob  can  watch 
the  roasting,"  for  Bob  had  reappeared  at  the  fire. 

"But  you  can't  go  with  me,"  replied  Duncan. 
"  The  water's  knee  deep,  and  more,  between  here  and 
the  crib." 

"It  can't  make  me  any  wetter  than  I  am  now," 
replied  the  resolute  girl,  as  she  set  off  in  Duncan's 
company. 

At  the  crib  she  studied  the  situation  critically. 
She  knew  nothing  of  engineering,  of  course,  but  she 
had  an  abundance  of  practical  common  sense,  and  in 
most  of  the  affairs  of  this  life,  common  sense  goes  a 
long  way  as  a  substitute  for  skill. 

"What  time  is  it  now?"  she  asked,  after  she  had 
watched  the  slow  progress  of  the  work  long  enough  to 
estimate  the  prospect. 


THE    END    OF    A    STRUGGLE        335 

"  Half  past  ten." 

"Then  we've  only  an  hour  and  a  half  more.  It 
isn't  enough.     You  can  never  fill  that  hole  in  time." 

"  I'm  afraid  we  can't.  I'm  afraid  we've  lost  in  the 
struggle." 

"Oh,  no,  you  mustn't  feel  that  way.  We  simply 
must  win  this  battle.  If  we  can't  do  it  in  one  way, 
we  must  find  another." 

Duncan  made  no  answer.  There  seemed  to  him  no 
answer  to  be  made.  The  girl  continued  to  look  about 
her.     After  a  while  she  asked: 

"Is  the  end  of  the  crib  at  the  county  line?" 

"  Yes — or  rather  the  line  lies  a  little  way  this  side 
of  the  end  of  the  crib." 

Again  she  remained  silent  for  a  time,  before 
saying: 

"There  are  two  big  tree  trunks  lying  longways 
there  in  the  crib.  They  extend  across  the  county  line. 
Why  can't  you  jack  them  up  into  place,  and  lay  your 
rails  along  them,  without  filling  the  space,  and  without 
using  any  ties  ?  " 

For  half  a  minute  the  young  man  did  not  answer. 
At  last  he  exclaimed: 

"That's  an  inspiration!" 

Without  pausing  to  say  another  word  Duncan 
started  at  a  run  through  the  water  till  he  reached 
the  mud  embankment.  Then  he  ran  along  that  to 
the  point  where  Temple  was  superintending  the  earth- 
diggers. 


A  CAPTAIN  IN  THE  RANKS 

"  Quit  this  quick  \ "  he  cried,  "  and  hurry  the  whole 
force  to  the  crib.  I  see  a  way  out.  Order  all  the 
jack-screws  brought,  Dick,  and  come  yourself  in  a 
hurry ! " 

The  two  great  tree  trunks  were  quickly  cleared  of 
their  remaining  branches  by  the  axmen.  Then 
Temple  placed  the  jack-screws  under  them,  and  set 
to  work  to  raise  them  into  the  desired  position,  so 
that  they  should  lie  parallel  with  each  other,  at  the 
track  level,  with  a  space  of  about  four  and  a  half 
feet  between  their  centers. 

As  the  jack-screws  slowly  brought  them  into  posi- 
tion, Will  Hallam  and  Duncan,  one  at  either  end  of 
the  logs — directed  men  in  the  work  of  placing  log 
supports  under  them. 

At  half  past  eleven  Temple  announced  that  the 
great  tree  trunks  were  in  place.  Instantly  twenty 
axmen  were  set  at  work  hewing  a  flat  place  for  rails 
along  the  top  of  each  log,  while  other  men,  as  fast 
as  the  hewing  advanced,  laid  and  spiked  down  the  iron 
rails. 

At  five  minutes  before  noon,  a  gang  of  men,  with 
shouts  of  enthusiastic  triumph,  seized  upon  the  dump- 
ing car,  which  stood  waiting,  and  pushed  it  across  the 
line!  As  this  last  act  in  the  drama  began,  Guilford 
Duncan  seized  Barbara  by  the  elbows,  kissed  her  in 
the  presence  of  all,  lifted  her  off  her  feet,  and  placed 
her  in  the  moving  car. 

"  You  have  saved  the  railroad ! "  he  said  with  emp- 


THE    END    OF    A    STRUGGLE        3ST 

tion    in    his    voice,    "and    you    shall    be    its    first 
passenger.55 

•  •  *  •  • 

It  was  ten  days  later  when  Barbara  reached  home 
again,  after  a  wearisome  journey  through  the  flooded 
district,  under  the  escort  of  Duncan  and  Captain 
Will  Hallam,  and  with  the  assistance  of  Temple,  at 
the  head  of  a  gang  of  his  ready-witted  miners. 

That  evening  Duncan  stood  face  to  face  with  her 
in  the  little  parlor.     Without  preface,  he  asked: 

"  Will  you  now  say  *  yes,5  Barbara,  to  the  question 
I  asked  you   so  long  ago?55 

"I  suppose  I  must,55  she  answered,  "after — after 
what  you  did  when  you  set  me  in  the  car  that  last 
day  of  the  struggle.55 


THE  END 


Good  Fiction  Worth  Reading. 

A  series  of  romances  containing  several  of  the  old  favorites  in  the  field 
of  historical  fiction,  replete  with  powerful  romt^ces  of  love  and  diplomacy 
that  excel  in  thrilling  and  absorbing  interest. 


A  COLONIAL  FREE-LANCE.  A  story  of  American  Colonial  Times.  By 
Chauncey  C.  Hotchkiss.  Cloth,  i2mo.  with  four  illustrations  by  J.  Watson 
Davis.    Price,  $1.00. 

A  book  that  appeals  to  Americans  as  a  vivid  picture  of  Revolutionary 
scenes.  The  story  is  a  strong  one,  a  thrilling  one.  It  causes  the  true 
American  to  flush  with  excitement,  to  devour  chapter  after  chapter,  until 
the  eyes  smart,  and  it  fairly  smokes  with  patriotism.  The  love  story  is  & 
singularly  charming  idyl. 

THE  TOWER  OF  LONDON.  A  Historical  Romance  of  the  Timesof  Lady 
Jane  Grey  and  Mary  Tudor.  By  Wm.  Harrison  Ainsworth.  Cloth,  i2mo.  with 
four  illustrations  by  George  Cruikshank.    Price,  Ji.oo. 

This  romance  of  the  "Tower  of  London"  depicts  the  Tower  as  palace, 
prison  and  fortress,  with  many  historical  associations.  The  era  is  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  story  is  divided  into  two  parts,  one  dealing  with  Lady  Jane  Grey, 
and  the  other  with  Mary  Tudor  as  Queen,  introducing  other  notable  char- 
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In  the  midst  of  intrigue  and  conspiracy,  extending  considerably  over  « 
half  a  century. 

IN  DEFIANCE  OF  THE  KING.    A  Romance  of  the  American  Revolution. 

By  Chauncey  C.  Hotchkiss.    Cloth,  i2mo.  with  four  illustrations  by  J.  Watson 

Davis,   Price,  Ji.oo. 

Mr.  Hotchkiss  has  etched  in  burning  words  a  story  of  Yankee  bravery, 
and  true  love  that  thrills  from  beginning  to  end,  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Revolution.  The  heart  beats  quickly,  and  we  feel  ourselves  taking  a 
part  in  the  exciting  scenes  described.  Hfe  whole  story  is  so  absorbing 
that  you  will  sit  up  far  into  the  night  to  finish  it.  As  a  love  romance 
It    is    charming. 

GARTHOWEN.    A  story  of  a  Welsh  Homestead.    By  Allen  Raine.    Cloth, 

i2mo.  with  four  illustrations  by  J.  Watson  Davis.    Price,  $1.00. 

"This  is  a  little  idyl  of  humble  life  and  enduring  love,  laid  bare  before 
us,  very  real  and  pure,  which  in  its  telling  shows  us  some  strong  points  of 
Welsh  character— the  pride,  the  hasty  temper,  the  quick  dying  out  of  wrath. 
.  .  .  We  call  this  a  well-written  story,  interesting  alike  through  ita 
romance  and  its  glimpses  into  another  life  than  ours.  A  delightful  and 
clever  picture  of  Welsh  village  life.  The  result  is  excellent."— Detroit  Free 
Press. 

MIFANWY.  The  story  of  a  Welsh  Singer.  By  Allan  Raine.  Cloth, 
umo.  with  four  illustrations  by  J.  Watson  Davis.    Price,  $1.00. 

"This  is  a  love  story,  simple,  tender  and  pretty  as  one  would  care  to 
read.  The  action  throughout  is  brisk  and  pleasing;  the  characters,  it  is  ap- 
parent at  once,  are  as  true  to  life  as  though  the  author  had  known  them 
all  personally.  Simple  in  all  its  situations,  the  story  is  worked  up  in  that 
touching  and  quaint  strain  which  never  grows  wearisome,  no  matter  how 
often  the  lights  and  shadows  of  love  are  introduced.  It  rings  true,  and 
does  not  tax  the  imagination."— Boston  Herald. 


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listers,  A,  b,  BURT  COMPANY,  53.58  Duaac  St.,  New  York. 


Good  Fiction  Worth  Reading, 

A  series  of  romances  containing  several  of  the  old  favorites  in  the  field 
of  historical  fiction,  replete  with  powerful  romances  of  love  and  diplomacy 
that  excel  in  thrilling  and  absorbing  interest. 


DARNLEY.  A  Romance  of  the  times  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Cardinal  Wolsey. 
By  G.  P.  R.  James.  Cloth,  i2tno.  with  four  illustrations  by  J.  Watsor  Davis. 
Price,  $i. oo. 

In  point  of  publication,  "Darnley"  is  that  work  by  Mr.  James  which 
follows  "Richelieu,"  and,  if  rumor  can  be  credited,  it  was  owing  to  the  ad- 
vice and  insistence  of  our  own  Washington  Irving  that  we  are  indebted 
primarily  for  the  story,  the  young  author  questioning  whether  he  could 
properly  paint  the  difference  in  the  characters  of  the  two  great  cardinals. 
And  it  is  not  surprising  that  James  should  have  hesitated;  he  had  been 
eminently  successful  in  giving  to  the  world  the  portrait  of  Richelieu  as  a 
man,  and  by  attempting  a  similar  task  with  Wolsey  as  the  theme,  was 
much  like  tempting  fortune.  Irving  insisted  that  "Darnley"  came  natur- 
ally in  sequence,  and  this  opinion  being  supported  by  Sir  Walter  Scott* 
the  author  set  about  the  work. 

As  a  historical  romance  "Darnley"  is  a  book  that  can  be  taken  wp 
pleasurably  again  and  again,  for  there  is  about  it  that  subtle  charm  which 
those  who  are  strangers  to  the  works  of  G.  P.  R.  James  have  claimed  was 
only  to  be  imparted  by  Dumas. 

If  there  was  nothing  more  about  the  work  to  attract  especial  attention,, 
the  account  of  the  meeting  of  the  kings  on  the  historic  "field  of  the  cloth  off 
gold"  would  entitle  the  story  to  the  most  favorable  consideration  of  every 
reader. 

There  is  really  but  little  pure  romance  in  this  story,  for  the  author  ha« 
taken  care  to  imagine  love  passages  only  between  those  whom  history  has 
credited  with  having  entertained  the  tender  passion  one  for  another,  and 
he  succeeds  in  making  such  lovers  as  all  the  world  must  love. 

CAPTAIN   BRAND,  OF  THE   SCHOONER   CENTIPEDE.    By   I<ieut. 

Henry  A.  Wise,    U.  S.  N.    (Harry  Gringo).     Cloth,  i2mo.  with  four  illustra- 
tions by  J.  Watson  Davis.    Price,  $1.00. 

The  re-publication  of  this  story  will  please  those  lovers  of  sea  yarn* 
who  delight  in  so  much  of  the  salty  flavor  of  the  ocean  as  can  come  through 
the  medium  of  a  printed  page,  for  never  has  a  story  of  the  sea  and  those 
"who  go  down  in  ships"  been  written  by  one  more  familiar  with  the  scene* 
depicted. 

The  one  book  of  this  gifted  author  which  is  best  remembered,  and  which 
will  be  read  with  pleasure  for  many  years  to  come,  is  "Captain  Brand," 
who,  as  the  author  states  on  his  title  page,  was  a  "pirate  of  eminence  in 
the  West  Indies."  As  a  sea  story  pure  and  simple,  "Captain  Brand"  has 
never  been  excelled,,  and  as  a  story  of  piratical  life,  told  without  the  usual 
embellishments  of  blood  and  thunder,   it  has  no  equal. 

NICK  OF  THE  WOODS.  A  story  of  the  Early  Settlers  of  Kentucky.  By 
Robert  Montgomery  Bird.  Cloth,  i2mo.  with  four  illustrations  by  J.  Watson 
Davis.    Price,  |i.oo. 

This  most  popular  novel  and  thrilling  story  of  early  frontier  life  in 
Kentucky  was  originally  published  in  the  year  1837.  The  novel,  long  out  off 
print,  had  in  its  day  a  phenomenal  sale,  for  its  realistic  presentation  off 
Indian  and  frontier  life  in  the  early  days  of  settlement  in  the  South,  nar- 
rated in  the  tale  with  all  the  art  of  a  practiced  writer.  A  very  charmingf 
love  romance  runs  through  the  stery.  This  new  and  tasteful  edition  off 
"Nick  of  the  Woods"  will  be  certain  to  make  many  new  admirers  for 
this   enchanting   story  from  Dr.    Bird's  clever  and  versatile  pen. 

For  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  sent  postpaid  ©n  receipt  of  price  by  the  pub* 
Hshers,  A.  L,  BURT  COMPANY,  53-58  Duane  St.,  New  York. 


Good  Fiction  Worth  Reading. 

> '  -■  ■        '  ■  ■  '  — «^— ^— 

A  series  of  romances  containing  several  of  the  old  favorites  in  the  field 
of  historical  fiction,  replete  with  powerful  romances  of  love  and  diplomacy 
that  excel  in  thrilling  and  absorbing  interest. 


GUY  FAWKES.  A  Romance  of  the  Gunpowder  Treason.  By  Wm.  Harri- 
son Ainsworth.  Cloth,  i2mo.  with  four  illustrations  by  George  Cruikshank. 
Price,  $1.00. 

The  "Gunpowder  Plot"  was  a  modest  attempt  to  blow  up  Parliament, 
the  King  and  his  Counsellors.  James  of  Scotland,  then  King  of  England, 
was  weak-minded  and  extravagant.  He  hit  upon  the  efficient  scheme  of 
extorting  money  from  the  people  by  imposing  taxes  on  the  Catholics.  In 
their  natural  resentment  to  this  extortion,  a  handful  of  bold  spirits  con- 
cluded to  overthrow  the  government.  Finally  the  plotters  were  arrested, 
and  the  King  put  to  torture  Guy  Fawkes  and  the  other  prisoners  witli 
royal  vigor.     A  very  intense  love  story  runs  through  the  entire  romance. 

THE  SPIRIT  OP  THE  BORDER.  A  Romance  of  the  Early  Settlers  in  the 
Ohio  Valley.  By  Zane  Grey.  Cloth.  i2mo.  with  four  illustrations  by  J.  Watson 
Davis.    Price,  |i .  oo. 

A  book  rather  out  of  the  ordinary  is  this  "Spirit  of  the  Border."  The 
main  thread  of  the  story  has  to  do  with  the  work  of  the  Moravian  mia- 
sionaries  in  the  Ohio  Valley.  Incidentally  the  reader  is  given  details  of  the 
frontier  life  of  those  hardy  pioneers  who  broke  the  wilderness  for  the  plant- 
ing of  this  great  nation.  Chief  among  these,  as  a  matter  of  course,  is 
Lewis  Wetzel,  one  of  the  most  peculiar,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most 
admirable  of  all  the  brave  men  who  spent  thetr  lives  battling  with  the 
savage  foe,   that  others  might  dwell  in  comparative  security. 

Details  of  the  establishment  and  destruction  of  the  Moravian  "Village 
of  Peace"  are  given  at  some  length,  and  with  minute  description.  The 
efforts  to  Christianize  the  Indians  are  described  as  they  never  have  been 
before,  and  the  author  has  depicted  the  characters  of  the  leaders  of  the 
several  Indian  tribes  with  great  care,  which  of  itself  will  be  of  interest  to> 
the   student. 

By  no  means  least  among  the  charms  of  the  story  are  the  vivfd  word- 
pictures  of  the  thrilling  adventures,  and  the  intense  paintings  of  the  beau- 
ties of  nature,  as  seen  in  the  almost  unbroken  forests. 

It  is  the  spirit  of  the  frontier  which  is  described,  and  one  can  by  it, 
perhaps,  the  better  understand  why  men,  and  women,  too,  willingly  braved 
every  privation  and  danger  that  the  westward  progress  of  the  star  of  em- 
pire might  be  the  more  certain  and  rapid.  A  love  story,  simple  and  tender, 
runs  through  the  book. 

RICHELIEU.  A  tale  of  France  in  the  reign  of  King  Louis  XIII.  By  G.  P. 
R.  James.  Cloth,  i2mo.  with  four  illustrations  by  J.  Watson  Davis.  Price,  £1.00. 

In  1829  Mr.  James  published  his  first  romance,  "Richelieu,"  and  was 
recognized  at  once  as  one  of  the  masters  of  the  craft. 

In  this  book  he  laid  the  story  during  those  later  days  of  the  great  car- 
dinal's life,  when  his  power  was  beginning  to  wane,  but  while  it  was 
yet  sufficiently  strong  to  permit  now  and  then  of  volcanic  outbursts  which 
overwhelmed  foes  and  carried  friends  to  the  topmost  wave  of  prosperity. 
One  of  the  most  striking  portions  of  the  story  is  that  of  Cinq  Mar's  conspir- 
acy; the  method  of  conducting  criminal  cases,  and  the  political  trickery 
resorted  to  by  royal  favorites,  affording  a  better  insight  into  the  state- 
craft of  that  day  than  can  be  had  even  by  an  exhaustive  study  of  history;. 
It  is  a  powerful  romance  of  love  and  diplomacy,  and  in  point  of  thrilling 
and   absorbing   interest  has   never  been   excelled. 

For  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price  by  the  pub- 
lishers, A.  L.  BURT  COMPANY,  52-38  Duaae  St.,  New  York. 


Good  Fiction  Worth  Reading. 

A  series  of  romances  containing  several  of  the  old  favorites  in  the  field 
of  historical  fiction,  replete  with  powerful  romances  of  love  and  diplomacy 
that  excel  in  thrilling  and  absorbing  interest. 


WINDSOR  CASTLE.  A  Historical  Romance  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  vni.; 
Catharine  of  Aragon  and  Anne  Boleyn.  By  Wm.  Harrison  Ainsworth.  Cloth, 
i2mo.  with  four  illustrations  by  George  Cruikshank.    Price,  $1.00. 

"Windsor  Castle"  is  the  story  of  Henry  VIII.,  Catharine,  and  Anne 
Boleyn.  "Bluff  King  Hal,"  although  a  well-loved  monarch,  was  none  too 
good  a  one  in  many  ways.  Of  all  his  selfishness  and  unwarrantable  acts, 
none  was  more  discreditable  than  his  divorce  from  Catharine,  and  his  mar- 
riage to  the  beautiful  Anne  Boleyn.  The  King's  love  was  as  brief  as  it 
was  vehement.  Jane  Seymour,  waiting  maid  on  the  Queen,  attracted  him, 
and  Anne  Boleyn  was  forced  to  the  block  to  make  room  for  her  successor. 
This  romance  is  one  of  extreme  interest  to  all  readers. 

HORSESHOE  ROBINSON.  A  tale  of  the  Tory  Ascendency  in  South  Caro- 
lina in  1780.  By  John  P.  Kennedy.  Cloth,  i2mo.  with  four  illustrations  by  J» 
"Watson  Davis.    Price,  $1.00. 

Among  the  old  favorites  In  the  field  of  what  is  known  as  historical  fic- 
tion, there  are  none  which  appeal  to  a  larger  number  of  Americans  than 
Horseshoe  Robinson,  and  this  because  it  is  the  only  story  which  depicts 
with  fidelity  to  the  facts  the  heroic  efforts  of  the  colonists  in  South  Caro- 
lina to  defend  their  homes  against  the  brutal  oppression  of  the  British 
under  such  leaders  as  Cornwallis  and  Tarleton. 

The  reader  is  charmed  with  the  story  of  love  which  forms  the  thread 
of  the  tale,  and  then  impressed  with  the  wealth  of  detail  concerning  those 
times.  The  picture  of  the  manifold  sufferings  of  the  people,  is  never  over- 
drawn, but  patnted  faithfully  and  honestly  by  one  who  spared  neither 
time  nor  labor  in  his  efforts  to  present  in  this  charming  love  story  all  that 
price  in  blood  and  tears  which  the  Carolinians  paid  as  their  share  in  the 
winning  of  the  republic 

Take  it  all  in  all,  "Horseshoe  Robinson"  is  a  work  which  should  be 
found  on  every  book-shelf,  not  only  because  it  is  a  most  entertaining 
story,  but  because  of  the  wealth  of  valuable  information  concerning  the 
colonists  which  it  contains.  That  it  has  been  brought  out  once  more,  well 
Illustrated,  is  something  which  will  give  pleasure  to  thousands  who  have 
long  desired  an  opportunity  to  read  the  story  again,  and  to  the  many  who 
have  tried  vainly  in  these  latter  days  to  procure  a  copy  that  they  might 
read  it  for  the  first  time. 

THE  PEARL  OP  ORR'S  ISLAND.  A  story  of  the  Coast  of  Maine.  By 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.    Cloth,  i2tno.    Illustrated.    Price,  $1.00. 

Written  prior  to  1862,  the  "Pearl  of  Orr's  Island"  is  ever  new;  a  book 
filled  with  delicate  fancies,  such  as  seemingly  array  themselves  anew  each 
time  one  reads  them.  One  sees  the  "sea  like  an  unbroken  mirror  all 
around  the  pine-girt,  lonely  shores  of  Orr's  Island,"  and  straightway 
comes  "the  heavy,  hollow  moan  of  the  surf  on  the  beach,  like  the  wild 
angry  howl   of  some  savage   animal." 

Who  can  read  of  the  beginning  of  that  sweet  life,  named  Mara,  which 
came  into  this  world  under  the  very  shadow  of  the  Death  angel's  wings, 
without  having  an  intense  desire  to  know  how  the  premature  bud  blos- 
somed? Again  and  again  one  lingers  over  the  descriptions  of  the  char- 
acter of  that  baby  boy  Moses,  who  came  through  the  tempest,  amid  the 
angry  billows,  pillowed  on  his  dead  mother's  breast. 

There  is  no  more  faithful  portrayal  of  New  England  life  than  that 
Which  Mrs.  Stowe  gives   in    "The  Pearl   of  Orr's  Island." 

For  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price  by  the  p«b« 
Usher*,  A.  L.  BURT  COMPANY,  53-58  Duanc  St.,  New  York. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
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AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED   FOR   FAILURE  TO   RETURN 
THIS   BOOK  ON   THE   DATE  DUE.   THE   PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
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